CLOSE
2022
30.04-30.07.2022
Auf dem Asphalt botanisieren gehen
Klosterfelde Edition
Berlin
Auf dem Asphalt botanisieren gehen
Klosterfelde Edition
Berlin
30.04-11.06.2022
Looking Through the Threshold
carlier gebauer
Berlin
Looking Through the Threshold
carlier gebauer
Berlin
17.02-28.10.2022
ALDO ROSSI’S SLEEPING ELEPHANT
Belvedere
Vienna, Austria
ALDO ROSSI’S SLEEPING ELEPHANT
Belvedere
Vienna, Austria
2021
26.10.2021–29.01.2022
Lives of an Object
ARCH
Athens, Greece
Lives of an Object
ARCH
Athens, Greece
12.06.-17.10.2021
Lichtenfels Sculpture
Austria
Lichtenfels Sculpture
Austria
28.04.-20.06.2021
I Think I Look More like the Chrysler Building
Vleeshal
Middelburg
I Think I Look More like the Chrysler Building
Vleeshal
Middelburg
27.03.2021-28.03.2021
Friend of a Friend
Warsaw
Poland
Friend of a Friend
Warsaw
Poland
2020
09.12.2020-30.01.2021
Babysteps into Masochism
Emanuel Layr
Vienna, Austria
Babysteps into Masochism
Emanuel Layr
Vienna, Austria
10.09.2020-07.11.2020
Fate of a cell / Η Τύχη ενός Κυττάρου
Martinos
Athens
Fate of a cell / Η Τύχη ενός Κυττάρου
Martinos
Athens
19.09.2020-31.10.2020
Ice to Gas
Pedro Cera
Lisbon
Ice to Gas
Pedro Cera
Lisbon
11.09.2020-17.19.2020
Various Others
Sperling, München
Munich, Germany
Various Others
Sperling, München
Munich, Germany
09.11.2019-08.03.2020
R.M.M. Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
New York, NY
R.M.M. Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
New York, NY
09.11.2019-08.03.2020
L’homme qui marche
Kunsthalle Bielefeld
Bielefeld, Germany
L’homme qui marche
Kunsthalle Bielefeld
Bielefeld, Germany
2019
27.09.2019―26.01.2020
My Fetish Years
Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Frankfurt, Germany
My Fetish Years
Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Frankfurt, Germany
11.01.―16.02.2019
Germanic Artifacts
Bortolami
New York, USA
Germanic Artifacts
Bortolami
New York, USA
2018
13.10.―22.12.2018
Positioner
Matthew Marks
Los Angeles, USA
Positioner
Matthew Marks
Los Angeles, USA
15.05.―21.07.2018
THEMOVE
Emanuel Layr Gallery
Vienna, Austria
THEMOVE
Emanuel Layr Gallery
Vienna, Austria
03.03.―13.05.2018
An Idea of Late German Sculpture; To The People Of New York, 2018
Kunsthalle Zürich
Zürich, Switzerland
An Idea of Late German Sculpture; To The People Of New York, 2018
Kunsthalle Zürich
Zürich, Switzerland
09.03.―22.07.2018
Between The Waters
Whitney Museum of Art
New York, USA
Between The Waters
Whitney Museum of Art
New York, USA
17.03.―28.04.2018
Embrassade
Fons Welters
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Embrassade
Fons Welters
Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017
19.01.―08.04.2017
Year Of The Monkey
Galerie Emanuel Layr
Rome, Italy
Year Of The Monkey
Galerie Emanuel Layr
Rome, Italy
28.04.―30.07.2017
SCHREI MICH NICHT AN, KRIEGER!
Schirn Kunsthalle
Frankfurt, Germany
SCHREI MICH NICHT AN, KRIEGER!
Schirn Kunsthalle
Frankfurt, Germany
09.04.―30.05.2017
Vertical Gardens
Antenna Space
Shanghai, China
Vertical Gardens
Antenna Space
Shanghai, China
03.06.―03.09.2017
Die Kommenden
Sprengel Museum
Hannover, Germany
Die Kommenden
Sprengel Museum
Hannover, Germany
14.09.―25.10.2017
in awe
Kunsthalle Exnergasse
Vienna, Austria
in awe
Kunsthalle Exnergasse
Vienna, Austria
06.2017
Art Basel Parcours
Art Basel
Basel, Switzerland
Art Basel Parcours
Art Basel
Basel, Switzerland
2016
07.06.―11.09.2016
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
Kaufmann Repetto
Milan, Italy
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
Kaufmann Repetto
Milan, Italy
28.01.―27.02.2016
RUN, RUN, RUNWAY
Golsa
Oslo, Norway
RUN, RUN, RUNWAY
Golsa
Oslo, Norway
27.02.―26.03.2016
Heartbreak Highway
Real Fine Arts
New York, USA
Heartbreak Highway
Real Fine Arts
New York, USA
17.06.―27.08.2016
My History of Flow
S.A.L.T.S.
Basel, Switzerland
My History of Flow
S.A.L.T.S.
Basel, Switzerland
04.07.―16.09.2016
fat center trash land 1―7, 2016
Small scale Sculpture triennial Fellbach
Fellbach, Germany
fat center trash land 1―7, 2016
Small scale Sculpture triennial Fellbach
Fellbach, Germany
09.09.―05.11.2016
Fieber
Emanuel Layr Gallery
Wien, Austria
Fieber
Emanuel Layr Gallery
Wien, Austria
04.07.―16.09.2016
In Bed with M/L Artspace
9th Berlin Biennale
Berlin, Germany
In Bed with M/L Artspace
9th Berlin Biennale
Berlin, Germany
03.12.2016―12.02.2017
Available Light
Kunstverein Braunschweig
Braunschweig, Germany
Available Light
Kunstverein Braunschweig
Braunschweig, Germany
2015
2015
Surrounding Audience
The New Museum Triennial
New York, USA
Surrounding Audience
The New Museum Triennial
New York, USA
09.2015
Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition
Queens
New York, USA
Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition
Queens
New York, USA
26.02.―04.04.2015
Looking at you (revived) again
Off Vendom
New York, USA
Looking at you (revived) again
Off Vendom
New York, USA
28-05.―16.05.2015
One step away from further Hell
Vilma Gold
London, UK
One step away from further Hell
Vilma Gold
London, UK
23.11.2015―08.01.2016
National Gallery 2―Empire Map
Chewday’s
London, UK
National Gallery 2―Empire Map
Chewday’s
London, UK
22.02.―05.04.2015
The problem today is not the other but the self
MINI/Goethe-Institut Ludlow 38
New York, USA
The problem today is not the other but the self
MINI/Goethe-Institut Ludlow 38
New York, USA
2014
09.05.2014-19.07.2014
Warm Math
Balice Hertling, New York
New York
Warm Math
Balice Hertling, New York
New York
05.2014
Frieze New York
Frieze Art Fair at Randall’s Island
New York, USA
Frieze New York
Frieze Art Fair at Randall’s Island
New York, USA
02.05.―07.06.2014
Bloomington: Mall Of America
Bortolami Gallery
New York, USA
Bloomington: Mall Of America
Bortolami Gallery
New York, USA
27.04.―01.06.2014
YES, I’M PREGNANT
Skulpturen museum Glaskasten
Marl, Germany
YES, I’M PREGNANT
Skulpturen museum Glaskasten
Marl, Germany
22.03.―17.05.2014
Geburt und Familie
White Flag Projects
Saint Louis, USA
Geburt und Familie
White Flag Projects
Saint Louis, USA
08.―09.2014
Piracanga Freedom?
Two Hotel, Piracanga Beach
Bahia, Brazil
Piracanga Freedom?
Two Hotel, Piracanga Beach
Bahia, Brazil
06.06.―14.08.2014
Chat Jet (Part 2), Sculpture in Reflection
Künstlerhaus KM
Austria
Chat Jet (Part 2), Sculpture in Reflection
Künstlerhaus KM
Austria
06.06.―03.08.2015
Revelry
Kunsthalle Bern
Bern, Switzerland
Revelry
Kunsthalle Bern
Bern, Switzerland
13.09.―18.10.2014
DIE
Parisa Kind
Frankfurt, Germany
DIE
Parisa Kind
Frankfurt, Germany
2013
14.12.2013-08.02.2014
Soft Wear
Sandy Brown
Berlin
Soft Wear
Sandy Brown
Berlin
24.02.―21.04.2013
From One Artist To Another
Kunstverein Wiesbaden
Germany
From One Artist To Another
Kunstverein Wiesbaden
Germany
13.09.―18.10.2013
On Thomas Bayrle
The Artist’s Institute
New York, USA
On Thomas Bayrle
The Artist’s Institute
New York, USA
05.2013
The Doors
Skulpturenpark Köln
Köln, Germany
The Doors
Skulpturenpark Köln
Köln, Germany
27.06.―09.08.2013
Freak Out
Greene Naftali Gallery
New York, USA
Freak Out
Greene Naftali Gallery
New York, USA
27.09.―09.11.2013
Love of Technology
Museum of Contemporary Art
North Miami, USA
Love of Technology
Museum of Contemporary Art
North Miami, USA
2012
05.02.2012-22.04.2012
Hang Harder
Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
Aachen, Germany
Hang Harder
Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
Aachen, Germany
12.2012
Lena Henke: First Faces, book launch at Karma Books, New York
Karma
New York, NY
Lena Henke: First Faces, book launch at Karma Books, New York
Karma
New York, NY
13.01.2012-19.02.2012
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend six sharpening my axe
Kunstraum Riehen
Basel, Switzerland
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend six sharpening my axe
Kunstraum Riehen
Basel, Switzerland
01.06.―29.07.2012
Core, Cut, Care
Oldenburger Kunstverein
Germany
Core, Cut, Care
Oldenburger Kunstverein
Germany
14.09.―21.10.2012
H․ H․ Bennett, Lena Henke and Cars
1857
Oslo, Norway
H․ H․ Bennett, Lena Henke and Cars
1857
Oslo, Norway
2011
15.06.―07.08.2011
Andrei Koschmieder puts
Real Fine Arts
New York, NY
Andrei Koschmieder puts
Real Fine Arts
New York, NY
23.04.―18.06.2011
Schlangen im Stall, “snakes in the barn”
Galerie Parisa Kind Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Schlangen im Stall, “snakes in the barn”
Galerie Parisa Kind Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2010
05.2010
WIR UEBER UNS
Neue Alte Bruecke Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
WIR UEBER UNS
Neue Alte Bruecke Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
08.2010
you have four eyes, (First ladies)
V 8
Karlsruhe, Germany
you have four eyes, (First ladies)
V 8
Karlsruhe, Germany
10.2010
Scandinavian blonde
Mousonturm
Frankfurt, Germany
Scandinavian blonde
Mousonturm
Frankfurt, Germany
28.11.2009 - 23.02.2010
Stone Temple Playground Collection
Kornhauschen Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg, Germany
Stone Temple Playground Collection
Kornhauschen Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg, Germany
28.11.2009 - 23.02.2010
Tokyo Hotel und deine Mutter
Literaturhaus
Frankfurt, Germany
Tokyo Hotel und deine Mutter
Literaturhaus
Frankfurt, Germany
Close
Close
27.09.2019―26.01.2020
My Fetish Years
Museum für Gegenwartskunst
27.09.2019―26.01.2020
My Fetish Years
Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Frankfurt, Germany
Press Release
Text by: Ines Rüttinger
+
Rubens Prize 2019 Winner
“My Fetish Years“ is the most comprehensive solo exhibition of Lena Henke, the 8th winner of the Rubens Prize Promotional Award, to date. The Museum für Gegenwartskunst is thus providing an overview of Henke's artistic development since she graduated from the Städelschule in Frankfurt 10 years prior. Numerous new works have been created relating to the exhibition venue in Siegen. In this sense, the exhibition is intended as a look back to the future.
As a whole, Lena Henke's oeuvre combines very different themes, media, working methods and materials: a bright yellow body made of weather-resistant synthetic rubber–as well as a sleeping elephant, playground and post-modern architecture; a sculptural family constellation cast in deep purple rubber–at the same time portraying a collection of figurative 20th-century sculpture, and finally a breast fragment made of sand–symbol of femininity and motherhood.
Lena Henke often arranges her diverse sculptural works in spatial installations. Her interest in spaces, however, is not limited to presentation or intervention in existing architecture; it is also revealed in a broader sense in the appropriation of objects, urban situations and psychological spatial constellations. Recurring motifs include interventions into the classic working methods of sculpture, recourse to anthroposophical methods, often through a biographically motivated approach or the control of “architecture”. In her vocabulary of forms and materials numerous references such as Minimalism or Land Art can be found, which she likes to combine with surrealist motifs. In a subtle way and with a humorous undertone, Henke enjoys infiltrating the patriarchal structures of art history. She explores the ideas of urban planners, landscape architects and urban theorists such as Jane Jacobs, Roberto Burle Marx and Robert Moses. She takes up themes like interpersonal relationships, sexuality and fetishism. Using strategies of intervention, appropriation and control, the artist also examines her relationship to herself and her family environment.
Many of Henke's works are created for specific exhibition situations or are rearranged according to the context. Thus, the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen offers a tour that on the one hand follows the chronology of the works, so reflecting their artistic development and exhibi- tion history. On the other hand, it is conceived so openly that it enables new constellations, site-specific references, and the reproduction of works from overseas.
The early installation “After Hang Harder“ (2016), therefore, is not the outcome of one but of two exhibitions in the art associations of Aachen and Oldenburg. In the sense of a positive-neg- ative process and a “work in progress", they invert the exhibition space, play with inside and outside with the use of tar, and question the artwork's origin and original in the recycling of in- dividual components. Henke reacted equally impressively to the architectural situation at Braunschweig Kunstverein with “Available Light“ (2016). Along a magenta-coloured balcony surrounding the building, visitors were guided from the closed main entrance to the rear door and the beginning of the exhibition tour was staged in a new way. Similar conceptual consider- ations also played a role at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, but in the spaces in Siegen they present themselves in a fresh light.
The Duraclear cuboids of the „Parkchester City Series“ (2014) speak of the tension between interior and exterior space, monumental and minimal gestures, two- and three-dimensionality. Here, the motifs are transformed in two ways. The expansive, symbolic sculptures of Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) are transformed into a three-dimensional object via an intermediate photographic stage. Printed in one colour on stiff foil, partly painted and folded into cubes, the floating transparency of the series oscillates between a ghostly information carrier and a simple wall sculpture.
The combination of rounded, organic bodies and hard, angular architecture continues in the sculpture “City Lights (Dead Horse Bay)“ (2016). In the style of a three-dimensional city model, like one to be found in Siegen, the bronze work can be read as a representational self-portrait of the artist. Henke's miniature Manhattan on the basis of a horse's head creates a ma- trix of architectural landmarks, city and garden visions, as well as reproductions of her own works. They include the city's famous water towers (which also run as a photo series across the museum's media façade) or the unrealized LOMAX Highway–long planned by urban planner Robert Moses and finally prevented by activist Jane Jacobs in 1969. These are joined by Henke's works from the “Female Fatigue Series“ or her horse's hooves, but also the “Leaning House“ and the “Orcus Mouth“ from the „Garden of Monsters“ by Vicion Orsini (1552-1585) near Bomarzo (Italy), as well as the “Spiral Jetty“ by Robert Smithson (1938-1973). In this way Henke reproduces her very own projection of New York–and consequently of herself as well.
Sexuality and femininity are powerful motifs in Lena Henke's work, whether in the small, fragile sand figurines or the expansive “THEMOVE“ (2018). Here, she transfers this constellation into the room and, through bronze casting, not only places herself into the tradition of a classic sculptural material but also grants the work and the motif an inescapable longevity. This is preceded by a staged selfie with which the artist presents herself almost consuming the phallic Freedom Tower. In the case of “First Ladies“ from 2009, Henke plays with sculptural themes such as the interrelation of pedestal and sculpture, but also with role clichés and the entertain- ment programme for politicians' wives that accompanies state receptions. “Yes, I'm pregnant!“ is conceived as a comic-like photo love story, whose protagonists, however, are 20th-century icons from the collection of the Museum Glaskasten Marl. Here, Henke deals loosely with art-historical references and such serious topics as teenage pregnancy, female self-determination, and the right to one's own body.
In the sculptural group “Die Kommenden“ (The Coming, 2017), Henke also makes use of sculptures of classical modernism (including Hans Arp, Joseph Jäckel, and Marino Marini) and combines them with her family members' facial features. Previously presented on a classic half-timbered house module tilted to one side–in Siegen, Henke relocates the violet rubber casts and contrasts the portrait busts with a wall-sized reproduction of the painting “The Battle of the Amazons“ (1618, Pinakothek Munich) by Peter Paul Rubens. The painting is captivating for its dramatic-dynamic composition of naked women's bodies fighting on horseback. Henke thus refers to Rubens' birthplace Siegen and the specific award, but also conveys a feminist undertone through her choice of this particular painting showing the warlike Amazons. Place, history, body and family are all brought together again here.
Another link between Henke’s residential and exhibition spaces is created by incorporating ur- ban space. New York street signs can be found on numerous street lamps in Siegen's upper city. The artist's word creations, such as “MYUPTOWNABYSS", connect emotional states with New York and Siegen. This intervention represents her interest in public space and an expansion of the museum space.
The artistic approaches outlined so far eventually come together in the latest works “My Trust“ and “Your Trust", both from 2019, and so conclude the exhibition tour in the museum's new building. Based on her earlier occupation with a horse's body (head, hoof) and the use of sad- dles, two new sculptures have been created. The two hybrid creatures, whose legs end in a hu- man-looking horse's foot, are reminiscent of centaurs. The tongue-like form and the skin-tight cover made of genuine leather also evoke associations with (sexual) fetishes, especially so- called “Pony Play". However, one should not forget that the word fetish or fetishism originally means belief in animated objects with magical abilities. And indeed, the fusion of a classic col- umn division consisting of horse's hoof, human foot and architectural round arch results in a powerful sculpture which forms a gate through which the observer can pass; the possibility of magical transit, a birth.












































