NYAB Event - SUPERFLEX "Bankrupt Banks"

SUPERFLEX "Bankrupt Banks"

Peter Blum Gallery

This event has ended.

Peter Blum presents the exhibition SUPERFLEX: Bankrupt Banks.

Bankrupt Banks is a new series that continues SUPERFLEX’s exploration of the many facets that have led to the international financial crisis. As in previous projects such as the film The Financial Crisis (2009) and their most recent installation, Power Toilet/JP Morgan Chase (2011), Bankrupt Banks critiques and illuminates the failures and irregularities of a global financial system.

The exhibition will feature an installation of 23 banners painted with logos of banks that were declared bankrupt and were acquired by other banks, governments or private entities. Originally designed to convey strength, authority and confidence, these now defunct symbols become portraits of failed power structures.

Beginning with the acquisition of the British mortgage lender, Alliance and Leicester by Grupo Santander on July 14, 2008, the exhibition acts as a sort of timeline, charting the collapse and subsequent reconfiguration of major international financial markets. While all of the works are unique, the series will grow as more banking institutions face either failure or reorganization.

SUPERFLEX was founded in 1993 by the Danish artists Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger, and Rasmus Nielsen. The group has gained worldwide recognition for their projects that deal with issues such as financial and economic markets, democratic production conditions, self-organization, and environmentalism. Their installation Copy Light Factory will be part of the exhibition Print/Out opening on February 19th at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Museum Kunst der Westküste, Germany (2011), The London Science Museum, England (2011) and The Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2010). Group exhibitions include shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2011); The Malmö Art Museum, Sweden (2011); Louisiana Museum, Denmark (2009); MOCA Miami (2009); Taipei Biennial, Taiwan (2008); Van Abbemuseum, The Netherlands(2007); Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Russia (2007); Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil (2006); and the CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2006).