Jochem Lempert and Lin May Saeed

Jochen Lempert and Lin May Saeed

March 25 - May 06, 2023

Chris Sharp Gallery is thrilled to present a two-person exhibition of the German, Hamburg-based artist Jochen Lempert and the German, Berlin-based artist Lin May Saeed.

Jochen Lempert and Lin May Saeed share a deep and abiding interest in and commitment to questions and issues surrounding the animal kingdom and the natural world. Although they are longtime friends and colleagues with a mutual influence, this is the first time their work will be in direct dialogue in a two-person show. That said, for all the similarities in their shared subject matter, they approach it in totally different ways. Lempert’s black-and-white analog photographs examine the relationship between the human animal and the natural world. Vexing the Cartesian distinction between nature and culture, Lempert’s work richly explores the myriad interrelated links between the two. Whether through comparative mimesis, cohabitation or western aesthetics largely codified by the renaissance and modernism, his photos consider how nature and culture are in constant dialogue, co-evolving, overlapping, and finally, coexisting. Although political, Lempert’s work is far from utopian. It does not necessarily dream of an Edenic return to nature; if anything it is marked by a sober melancholy, arising from our obvious inability to move beyond the anthropocentric gaze.

Lin May Saeed makes sculptures, sculptural reliefs, drawings, works on paper, and video. The work is directly linked to and thematically informed by her interest in animals and her commitment to radical animal activism. It deals with the exploitation of animals, their depiction, liberation, and potentially harmonious relationships with human beings, and the often self-seeking cruelty of the latter. Saeed’s iconographic frame of reference is rich and varied. It includes Egyptian statuary, Greco-Roman sculpture, and scientific and natural history museum displays, among other things. Although she works with a variety of materials, styrofoam plays a very important role in her practice. Saeed is drawn to this material in large part for its intrinsic ugliness. Traditional sculptural materials such as bronze and marble are, as far as she is concerned, too beautiful (even when she does use bronze, she casts it from carved styrofoam and paints it white). For her, the uneasy complexity of styrofoam reflects the complexity of the subject matter she is dealing with, while presenting a host of real sculptural challenges – formal issues being just as important to her as they are in the photos of Jochen Lempert.

For the exhibition at Chris Sharp Gallery, Saeed will present three new styrofoam relief works, as well as a new bronze work and a free standing sculpture. Lempert will present a selection of new and recent photos.

Jochen Lempert

Jochen Lempert (b. Moers, Germany, 1958) lives and works in Hamburg. A selection of recent solo exhibitions includes (2022) Natural Sources, Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Jochen Lempert, Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France. Jochen Lempert, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany; (2021) Visible Light, ProjecteSD, Barcelona; (2020) Phenotype, CAC Vilnius, Lithuania; Jardin d’Hiver, Le Crédac, Centre d’Art Contemporain d’Ivry, Ivry-sur-Seine, France; (2019) Jochen Lempert, BQ Gallery, Berlin, Germany. Jochen Lempert Fotos an Büchern, Camera Austria, Graz, Austria. Jochen Lempert, Capri, Düsseldorf, Germany; (2018) Predicted Autumn, Musée départemental d'art contemporain de Rochechouart, France. Sudden Spring, Bildmuseet, Umea University, Umea, Sweden. Jochen Lempert, CA2M, Centro de Arte dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain. Some Plant Volatiles, Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna. Austria Botanical Box, French Pavillon, Zagreb, Croatia. Phasmes, Institut de Carton, Brussels, Belgium. Two Poems, Some Pairs, Mutina for Art, Fiorano, Modena, Italy. (2017) Zostera & Posidonia, ProjecteSD, Barcelona. A selection of recent group exhibitions includes: (2022) Nature Humaine, Fondation Van Gogh, Arles, France. Fata Morgana, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; (2021) La mer imaginaire, Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France (2020) Pictures from Another Wall, De Pont Museum, Tilburg, The Netherlands (2019) Mercury, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia. Worlds in Motion. Collection presentation, Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg. Ganar Perdiendo, CentroCentro, Madrid, Spain. What they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance, CACBM, Paris, France. Antipasti, Sauvage, Bonn, Germany. Phenomenon III, Phenomenon, Anafi, Greece. One Minute, One Hour, One Month... One Million Years, The Island Club, Cyprus. Super Erotic Group Show, 8. Salon, Hamburg, Germany. Von Pflanzen und Menschen, Deutsche Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Dresden, Germany. City Prince/sses Dhaka, Lagos, Manila, Mexico City and Tehran, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Accrochage #5, ProjecteSD, Barcelona, Spain. Jochen Lempert is represented by ProjecteSD, Barcelona and BQ, Berlin.

Lin May Saeed

Lin May Saeed (b. Würzburg, Germany, 1973) lives and works in Berlin. A selection of solo exhibitions includes (2021) Rami, Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Sipgate Shows, Dusseldorf, Germany; (2020) Arrival of the Animals, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, USA.; (2019) Lin May Saeed & Max Brand, What Pipeline, Detroit, USA. Girl with a Cat, Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt/Main, Germany; (2018) Biene, Studio Voltaire, London, UK; (2017) Djamil, Lulu, Mexico City, Mexico. A selection of group exhibitions includes: (2022) We Belong To Each Other, An Exhibition on Joy, Carlier Gebauer, Berlin, Germany; (2021) Painting in Person. The new Collection of Fondazione CRC, Complesso Monumentale di San Francesco a Cuneo, Italy. Eurasia -A Landscape of Mutability, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium. Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale, ARTZUID 2021 – Imagine, Netherlands; La Mer Imaginaire, Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, Frace; Espressioni, Museo Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; IUCN World Conservation Congress, Marseille, France. (2020) Winterfest, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, USA; Crack Up – Crack Down, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland; El oro de los tigres, Air de Paris, Romainville, France. (2019) Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia; City Prince/sses, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Good Space Communities -oder das Versprechen von Glück, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany. Lin May Saeed is co-represented by Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles and Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt/Man.