MEYER*KAINER curated by Will Benedict
„CURATED BY WILL BENEDICT: ANITA LEISZ / NORA SCHULTZ“

* 1978 in Los Angeles, lives and works in Vienna For the past several years Benedict has been working professionally as a photographer, painter and curator. Along with Lucie Stahl he runs the exhibition space and bar Pro Choice/ L’Ocean Licker, which he uses to elaborate the more ephemeral aspects of his regular studio work. Social relations are treated as stimulating and destructive; they force Benedict into situations he would normally avoid and provide opportunities he never expected. Benedict has said on more than one occasion that “sometimes an object’s history can be unfolded and sometimes the object enfolds you, takes over your body and you’re just a kind of zombie.” But he does admit that it’s mostly his fault if he ends up in this position—a bit mute, surrounded and a part of something. Or if he’s in an empowered position, he says that’s his fault too.

PRESSRELEASE CURATED BY WILL BENEDICT: ANITA LEISZ / NORA SCHULTZ Will Benedict is an artist and curator based in Vienna. Recent exhibitions of his work include, Bonjour Tourist, at Gio’ Marconi, Milan and Bread & Butt at Meyer Kainer, Vienna. Recent exhibitions curated by Benedict include Commercial Psycho at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York and Wolfgang Breuer and Anita Leisz at Renwick Gallery, New York. Along with Lucie Stahl he runs the exhibition space and bar Pro Choice / L’ Ocean Licker which he uses to elaborate the more ephemeral aspects of his regular studio work. ANITA LEISZ / NORA SCHULTZ Anita Leisz and Nora Schultz share an interest in how procedures of construction relate to the human body, inform daily activity, and manifest realities, but their shared concern for the sculptural issues of balance, volume, mass, interiority and exteriority diverge at the crucial point of determining what it is that makes a finished object. Schultz allows the process to speak for itself, often leaving the artworks in a reconstructable heap. Her works are rough-hewn and provisional with the material in service to the idea and with as little thought to precise measurement as possible. In contrast Leisz labors over minute details. Her constructions evaluate proportions as varied as those historically linked to ancient Greece or as banal as a mattress. For the exhibition at Meyer Kainer, Schultz will present new works where “Bits of probability turn into reality – Hello”, “A vision of nature is implanted in my brain”, and “Birds sing in the reality rain”. While Leisz is showing works where torsos expand and contract and the material closest to our bodies, sheets and shirts, must be discussed. Opening: Thursday, 20.9., 6pm-10pm Exhibition duration: 21.09.-25.10.2012