From Walter Pfeiffer’s Polaroids to interactive kinetic sculptures&nbsp;by Mika Rottenberg, discover seven shows to see across the city

Zurich Art returns with noteworthy gallery exhibitions

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While Art Basel’s show in Basel has been postponed to September, Zurich Art, which traditionally precedes the fair, has been retained ­– albeit with a second iteration also&nbsp;scheduled for the autumn. Taking place this weekend, from June 11–13, the program features an exciting line-up of artists to (re)discover in galleries throughout the city, including several solo shows with prominent Swiss artists.&nbsp;

Walter Pfeiffer, ‘Polaroids 1972–2001’ Galerie Gregor Staiger Through July 17, 2021Walter Pfeiffer is no less than a monument of Swiss photography. An emblematic figure of Zurich’s underground art scene since the 1970s, he gained international renown at the turn of the millennium with his distinctive style and images that appeared on the pages of both mainstream and edgy magazines. His third solo show at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1535/Galerie-Gregor-Staiger" target="_blank">Galerie Gregor Staiger</a> focuses on his Polaroid pictures – a rarely exhibited segment of his practice. Initially used by Pfeiffer as a handy way to test and document his compositions while still working as a graphic designer, Polaroids quickly became a privileged medium for the artist to casually capture his entourage. The exhibited snapshots represent the timeless hedonism and homoeroticism that characterize Pfeiffer’s work and led him to be considered a pioneer of diaristic photography, yet with a poignant sense of intimacy and urgency that only a Polaroid can produce.

Shara Hughes, ‘Return of Light’ Galerie Eva Presenhuber Through July 22, 2021The new paintings presented by Brooklyn-based artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/49037/Shara-Hughes" target="_blank">Shara Hughes</a> at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1250/Galerie-Eva-Presenhuber" target="_blank">Galerie Eva Presenhuber</a> feature a series of imaginary landscapes. The canvases range from small- to large-scale and depict a lush nature in Hughes’s kaleidoscopic palette. But those landscapes are in fact portraits, as their vertical format suggests: Portraits of the sun, which recurs as a constant yet ever-changing protagonist in every painting, its rays piercing the foliage and the clouds, its halo dominating the compositions or peeking out from behind the horizon. Hughes explains that she began this series last year after the world seemed to have lost its bearings. In the gallery, the paintings feel like an invocation to light and the promise of new beginnings.

Thomas Ruff, ‘Tableaux Chinois’ Mai 36 Galerie June 11 – August 7, 2021<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8075/Thomas-Ruff" target="_blank">Thomas Ruff’</a>s latest photography series ‘Tableaux Chinois’ (2021) explores the pictorial language of propaganda. Shown for the first time in Switzerland, this recent group of works departs from official Chinese press photos from the 1950s–70s found in books&nbsp;and a magazine distributed by&nbsp;the&nbsp;Communist Party. Ruff enlarged the pictures and reworked them through a process of overlays so that the original offset pattern and a new grid of digital pixels coexist in the final print to create a critical distance between the depicted subject and its idealized image. In revealing the technical ‘other side’ of these historical pictures, Ruff questions the role of images in the circulation and persistence of an embellished version of reality. The exhibition continues in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1194/Mai-36-Galerie" target="_blank">Mai 36 Galerie</a>’s upper floors with a selection of works from 12 of Ruff’s previous series made between 1981 and 2019.

Pascale Birchler, ‘The rest is silence’ Project Space Galerie Peter Kilchmann June 11 – July 24, 2021<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1175/Galerie-Peter-Kilchmann" target="_blank">Galerie Peter Kilchmann</a>’s project space features an uncanny installation by Zurich-based artist Pascale Birchler. Birchler is known for her spatial arrangements comprising drawings and wall paintings as well as sculptures, notably life-size human figures that inhabit her environments theatrically like a poetic and sometimes disturbing mirror of the viewer’s presence in the space. The title of this exhibition takes its name from Hamlet’s last line in Shakespeare’s eponymous piece. Here, the sentence indicating the character’s death becomes an invitation for contemplation and introspection, a reflection about the perceived and the untold. Parallel to Birchler’s installation in the project space is a solo exhibition by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/11556/Val%C3%A9rie-Favre" target="_blank">Valérie Favre</a> in the main gallery.

‘This city Is’ Galerie Francesca Pia June 11 – September 12, 2021<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1531/Galerie-Francesca-Pia" target="_blank">Galerie Francesca Pia</a>’s summer group show is a collective meditation on the urban environment, featuring works by Jenna Bliss, Hans-Christian Lotz, Alan Michael,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8525/Sam-Pulitzer" target="_blank">Sam Pulitzer</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/25138/Gili-Tal" target="_blank">Gili Tal</a>. With its ambiguous title, the exhibition seems to invite the artists and audience to creatively and experientially complete the sentence – or should the absence of a predicate rather be understood as an existential cry? Be it as it may, all exhibited artists deal in their respective practice with political and aesthetic issues related to the public space, diversely addressing the endless negotiation between the self and the group, belonging and exclusion, emancipation and conformist injunctions. Mirages of a post-pandemic world and urgent struggles for justice challenge us to rethink our choreographies in the city, individual and collective alike. The works in the show encourage the reclamation and occupation of space, both poetically and ideologically.

Mika Rottenberg Hauser &amp; Wirth June 11 – August 27, 2021<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1153/Hauser-Wirth" target="_blank">Hauser &amp; Wirth</a>’s space on the second floor of Löwenbräu Areal features the first solo exhibition by New York–based Argentine-Israeli multimedia artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8560/Mika-Rottenberg" target="_blank">Mika Rottenberg</a> with the gallery. Rottenberg’s tongue-in-cheek films dissect the contemporary modes of production and circulation of capital as well as the mechanization and commodification of bodies using a mix of documentary and fictional ­– sometimes absurdist – footage. She is known for staging her video works in immersive installations that confront viewers with the environments explored in her films. This show includes her piece Spaghetti Blockchain (2019), along with a new series of drawings and kinetic sculptures, among other works. The exhibition on the gallery’s ground floor continues the Argentine theme with a solo show by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7220/Guillermo-Kuitca" target="_blank">Guillermo Kuitca</a>&nbsp;featuring recent and new paintings.

Sylvie Fleury, ‘Performance Promise’ Karma International Through July 17, 2021For ‘Performance Promise’, Swiss artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7424/Sylvie-Fleury" target="_blank">Sylvie Fleury</a> invades the two floors of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1386/Karma-International" target="_blank">Karma International</a>’s annex, across the street from their main space, with a number of sculptures and installations in her characteristic wealth of colors, media, and registers. The title may be intentionally misleading: What is performative about this show and to whom is it promised? It is a riddle posed to the audience – perhaps the one true performer in Fleury’s universe. Elsewhere in the city, additional works by Fleury can be seen in the group exhibition ‘Zurich Surprise’ at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2624/galerie-lange-pult" target="_blank">Galerie Lange + Pult&nbsp;</a>(through June 19, 2021), while Karma International’s main gallery features an exhibition by other major Swiss artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6728/Pamela-Rosenkranz" target="_blank">Pamela Rosenkranz</a>. Simon W Marin is an art historian, independent curator, and editor based in Zurich. Zurich Art takes place from June 11-13, 2021 and will be followed by Zurich Art Weekend from September 17–19, 2021. Learn more via&nbsp;<a href="https://zurichartweekend.com" target="_blank">zurichartweekend.com</a>.

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From Walter Pfeiffer’s Polaroids to interactive kinetic sculptures by Mika Rottenberg, discover seven shows to see across the city

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Zurich Art returns with noteworthy gallery exhibitions

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