Dutch artist Gabriel Lester brings his unique musical performance to Leo Xu Projects in Shanghai

TEXT:Sue Wang    DATE: 2014.2.20

Poster of GABRIEL LESTER THE EARS HAVE WALLS

Paying homage to the early 20th century theater performance, one of the most sought-after Dutch artist Gabriel Lester will showcase a unique musical performance in his solo show “The Ears Have Walls” at LEO XU PROJECTS. His works deal with global immigration and the changing living condition, a follow-up of his grand survey “Roxy” at Minsheng Art Museum in 2012.

About the artist

Born in 1972 in Amsterdam, Gabriel Lester is a representative figure among a young generation of European artists active on the international scene. Lester works across various disciplines including cinema, music, performance, installation, sculpture and architecture. Atmospheric and perceptual, many of Lester’s works evolve around the very nature of the media of our time, and transform the space and time through meticulously altering the media and forms. Profoundly inspired by cinema at early stage, “How to Act”, one of Lester’s best known and widely exhibited piece expands territory of cinema and bring it into a discourse of space and time. Continuing such efforts, “All Right”, a commission for Busan Biennale 2006, re-defines the filmmaking in the era of new technology and its culture. Many of Lester’s works are architecturally experimental. One of the notable cases is “Melancholia in Arcadia”, an installation presenting a frozen cinematic moment in an architectural space.

Gabriel Lester has exhibited at many major museums and biennales, for instance, Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam), Gemeentemuseum (Den Haag), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, Ohio), Performa 09 (New York), Artists Space (New York), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Liverpool Biennial (Liverpool), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Busan Biennial (Busan), Baltic Triennal, PS1 (New York), Witte de With (Rotterdam), Rijksakademie (Amsterdam), World Expo (Hannover), etc.

Lester’s work has been placed in many prestigious collections like Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Stedelijk Museum, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere, MUDAM, Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Rabobank Art Collection, 21CMuseum, Louisville, United States.

Lester is currently collaborating with Rem Koolhaas/OMA and an interdisciplinary team on an architectural project at United Nations’ New York Headquarter.

He lives and works in Amsterdam and Shanghai.

About the exhibition

Date: Daily February 22 - April 6

Location: Leo Xu Projects

Address: Lane 49, Building 3, Fuxing Xi Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031, China

T: +86-21-34611245 F: +86-21-34612450

E: info@leoxuprojects.com

Courtesy of the artist and Leo Xu Projects, for further information please visit http://leoxuprojects.com.