Exhibition: WIWI FOOD

Jonas Lipps WIWI FOOD Tanya Leighton at Bureau, New York September 13 - October 21 2018

In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together. The drawings depict abstract, cartoon-like characters in various patterns and open spaces.

Bureau and Tanya Leighton, Berlin are pleased to announce a solo exhibition, WIWI FOOD by the Berlin-based artist, Jonas Lipps. The exhibition marks the second half of an exchange between the two galleries, which began with Julia Rommel’s current exhibition, Twin Bed, in Berlin.

Lipps’s works often take up predominant systems of social order: schools, shopping centers, transportation networks, nation states and jails. These environments of control find themselves permeated by spoofs on their branding and design, malapropisms, anachronisms and associative inventions. Similarly, the pieces in Lipps’s latest body of work on view at Bureau are painted, drawn and collaged using both existing images and surreal interventions. Lipps repurposes paper napkins, the seals of correctional facilities and advertisements, placing them within environments that are charged with Freudian spillages, libidinal utterances and personal preoccupations.

Throughout the exhibition, Lipps uses matte, often unmixed Casein paint to block out geometrically simplified spaces and build patterns of color that seem to derive from an innate logic. More than once, a window, a grid or something resembling abstracted fencing blocks the viewer’s gaze into the scene unfolding in front of them. It’s as if the systems of social organization and control that can be seen represented in some works have made themselves manifest in others. If one piece depicts a prison, another could well be a view from inside of it.

The use of cheap paper napkins – decorated with kitschy or nationalistic motifs – recurs. There are German flags, mushrooms paired with hedgehogs, and a safari scene that has been retooled by the artist into a children’s book with anthropomorphized zebras and giraffes. The idea of emblazoning something one wipes their hands on and summarily discards is a bit unnecessary when you think about it. Lipps’s treatment of these rescued throw-aways is equal parts transformative and resigned to the fact that we are not always the ones making the decisions that affect us. You may build your own house, but you probably have to buy the bricks from somebody else.

Jonas Lipps was born in Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany. He now lives and works in Berlin. His work has been exhibited worldwide, with recent exhibitions including Tanya Leighton, Berlin; Gallery Celine, Glasgow; LISZT, Berlin; Paradise Garage, Los Angeles; Galerie der Stadt Schwaz; The Prague Biennial; and Kunstverein Bremerhaven.

In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white wall. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes in various patterns or open public spaces.
A small work on paper rendered in color pencil with an abstract cartoon-like figure pulling a cart in front of a storefront with the sign "SUESS." The dominant colors are hues of brown, red, blue and yellow.

Untitled, 2018, colored pencil on paper, 7 ⅛ × 10 ⅜ in.

A small work on paper rendered in watercolor with an abstract cartoon-like face with a wash of rainbow hair being swept by a smaller abstracted figure.

Untitled, 2018, watercolor on paper, 10 ½ × 11 ¾ in.

In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white walls. The drawing are clustered in groups. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes in various patterns, open or enclosed architectural spaces. The sizes of the paper vary in length and proportion.
In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white wall. The drawing are clustered in a group. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes. The sizes of the paper vary in length and proportion. The drawing on the left depicts a wave pattern in the color of a German flag. The drawing in the center is done on top of a pizza box.
On a white wall, a cardboard pizza box with a landscape painted on top of it with a painted black border.

Untitled, 2018, casein on printed cardboard, 21 ⅞ × 22 in.

A scroll-like drawing with an abstract blue, red, and yellow form. On the top and bottom are bars of brown material.

Untitled, 2018, collage, casein and pencil on paper, 20 ¼ × 57 ⅛ in.

In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white wall. The drawing are clustered in a group. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes. The sizes of the paper vary in length and proportion.
A small drawing a road crossing with a cartoon-like stop light. The road is painted in gray with the x-crossing surrounded be green grass an a blue sky. The work is painted on cardboard.

Jonas Lipps, Untitled, 2018, casein on cardboard, 13 ⅝ × 18 ¼ in.

A small drawing with the words "The Children's Place" written in cursive at the bottom. There are circles drawn in red, yellow, and green. Behind the words is a window of blue material with a reddish bar.

Untitled, 2018, pencil and casein on cardboard, 13 × 17 ⅜ in.

In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white walls. The drawings are clustered in groups. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes. The sizes of the paper vary in length and proportion. There is a large scroll-like drawing rendered in the colors of the German flag.
In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white wall. The drawings are clustered in a group. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes. The sizes of the paper vary in length and proportion. There are interior spaces and exterior spaces depicted.
A work on paper rendered in pencil and paint with a series of abstracted, cartoon-like figures rowing down a canal. There are trees beside the canal. The paper is irregularly shaped.

Untitled, 2018, casein and pencil on paper, 18 ⅛ × 39 ⅝ in.

A small work on paper with various stripes of bold colors along the right side. There is a cartoon-like figure with a long beard holding a knife. There are many rows of cartoon-like hedgehogs and mushrooms.

Untitled, 2018, collage and casein on paper, 14 ⅝ × 18 ¾ in.

In a gallery space, a series of small works on paper are installed close together on a white wall. The drawings are clustered in a group. The drawings depict abstracted, cartoon-like character scenes. The sizes of the paper vary in length and proportion. There are interior spaces and exterior spaces depicted. The drawing on the left hand side depicts a moving train.
A work on paper that is irregularly shaped and scroll-like. The work depicts a moving train with the word "Police" drawn on the front. There is a "Delta" sign. Many hearts are drawn on it and there is a row of yellow bars covering an abstract landscape.

Untitled, 2018, collage, casein and pencil on paper, 18 ¾ × 39 ⅝ in.

A small work on paper with a green background. In there center is a kind of scale with two weights hanging on either side with cartoon-like dogs drawn onto them. There is the text: "Dept. of Corrections Tracking Dog Team."

Untitled, 2018, casein on cardboard, 13 × 17 ⅜ in.

Photography by Dario Lasagni.