July 12, 2018 5:42 am
Published by Joni Sternbach
A group exhibition curated by Tarrah Von Lintel, through August 22, 2018
Dear Friends of Von Lintel Gallery,
I realized the other day that I am celebrating the 25th anniversary of the gallery. My journey has taken me from my home city of Munich, Germany, to New York during the heyday of the first West Chelsea galleries and finally Culver City, CA. Of that time, my four recent years in Los Angeles have been among my most fulfilling and personally happiest in my career.
I am pulling out all the stops with my June 23rd show, “Talk to Me,” an expansive four-room salon hanging of 40+ works from artists with whom I have had associations over the entire run of the gallery. This exhibition will include works by Roger Ackling, Marco Breuer, Sarah Charlesworth, Alan Charlton, John Chiara, Jeronimo Elespe, Adam Fuss, John Newman and David Row and Allyson Strafella to name a few of the artists that are not currently represented by the gallery. (see the complete list at the bottom)
“Talk to Me” is about how these works have talked to me. Of course, I have also known the artists themselves, with their amazing discourses. It is about collectors, too, who have always been a part of the genuine sense of dialogue. (As much as these works “talk to me,” I want to be able to talk with you.)
My plan is to continue the “Talk to Me” salon format into active programming through the summer and into the fall. We introduce this as a willful counter-reaction to current modes of public interaction with contemporary art. Moving away from the nexus of Instagram image-hopping and endless aisles of homogeneous art fairs in destination locales.
I will begin to use the back room of the gallery exclusively as a salon—complete with furniture (collaboratively designed and furnished courtesy of Galerie Carole Decombe). A place where those gathered can slow down and take a look. Returning to a more intimate sense of social conversation around the artworks. In the fall, we will begin hosting smaller groups and organizing discussions around thematic hangings. The mode of engagement privileges social interaction, small club-like evening gatherings around food and drink.
We are looking to encourage the special sense of community I have so appreciated in Los Angeles. The concept is as inclusive as it is exclusive. The audience—“the club” in a traditional sense—should be a self-defining group of people, seeking a next chapter, to see where the next 25 years can take us.
Please join me on the evening of June 23rd for my 25th anniversary “Talk to Me” opening and celebration.
All my best,
Tarrah Von Lintel