Mark Van Yetter “The Terrifying Abyss of Skepticism”

Bridget Donahue

[Image: Mark Van Yetter "A Rather Drab Affair" (2016) Oil on paper, 36x26 in.]

This event has ended.

Bridget Donahue proudly presents a solo exhibition of new paintings on paper by Berlin-based artist Mark Van Yetter.

Rather than displaying any sign of voraciousness at the sight of the pink chunk of meat erected on the nonsensically awkward table it lays its paw on with arrested desire, the curly, mud-grey dog just sits there, in the immediate vicinity of the food, staring at it, inspecting it, soundlessly conversing with it, rattled by a dilemma. The instinct of ingestion halted, this piece of meat becomes the object of doggish speculation. Thorough investigations into the nature of the nourishment that it is being offered by an invisible agent, and observations about the fashion in which it may be savored, follow. Then comes the dog’s remarkable realization that what here presents itself as “meat”, in fact consists of paint and nothing else. As it turns out, a rather frugal meal.

Now, this dog clearly is yet unaware – but surely approaching the recognition – of the undoubtable fact that its own canine makeup is itself invented out of paint. Meanwhile, if the meat is merely paint, a placeholder – convincing, nonetheless – the puzzled dog may venture the presumption, and us as well along with it, that here frugality will be rich nourishment…

It is kind of obvious.

Plotting a concrete gaze, the everywhere horror vacui against the the honing of instincts and its pleasure principle turbulence. A frail path of knowledge offering wonders to fight the fog in the palace. The ecstasy of communication ambivalancing as usual. The hairy man: “There is much to know for the happy inquisitive ones”. If it just would move more.

Texts by Mihaela Chiriac and Nico Ihlein

Mark Van Yetter (b. 1978, Poconos, PA) lives and works between Berlin, Germany and Istanbul, Trukey. Van Yetter co-founded exhibition space Marquise Dance Hall in 2007-2015, which started as a book and record store in New York, before transitioning to an itinerant gallery in Istanbul. Previous solo and two-person exhibitions include: ‘We are what we walk between,’ Micky Schubert, Berlin; ’Mark Van Yetter: The mere knowledge of a fact is pale,’ Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger Norway; ‘Meek Commandments,’ VI, VII, Oslo, Norway; ‘Dismal Plight,’ with Jonas Lipps, Cleopatra’s, New York; ‘Class Action,’ PlazaPlaza, London; ‘Perceptual Vigilance,’ Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin; Mark van Yetter, Alex Zachary, New York and ‘Intolerance To Contemporary Life,’ HOTEL, London.