Irène Hug Reading Pictures 23 x 26 cm 120 pages Swiss brochure, 8-sided fold-out cover, open thread stitching with texts (English/German) by Gernot Grube, Raimar Stange, Viola Vahrson The catalogue Reading Pictures is the first comprehensive examination of the work of Berlin-based Swiss artist Irène Hug. In addition to her work of the last 16 years, it includes text contributions by the philosopher Gernot Grube, the curator and art critic Reimar Stange and the art scholar Viola Vahrson. Far from sober artworks of American minimalists or conceptual artists involving written language, Irène Hug confronts us with her messages in glaring neon signs, objects, installations and photographs. Hug utilises and manipulates the typographic components of signposts, logos and advertising slogans that cover urban spaces worldwide. Using techniques of appropriation, montage, citation, and retouching she reacts to found materials, situations or stereotypical images, commenting on and changing their expressive value and meaning using pointed but complex artistic interventions. With subtle wit, Irène Hug questions our belief in the truth of the supposedly objective world (or its representation), our entanglement in omnipresent consumerism, and challenges us to get, behind the surfaces, as it were, to the bottom of the true meaning of things and words. Irène Hug, born 1964 in Zurich, lives as a visual artist in Berlin. She studied painting at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She is represented in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In addition to her artistic activities, she has been the director of the project space super bien! together with Elisabeth Sonneck since 2019. Exhibitions at the following institutions and galleries (selection): Haus am Lützowplatz, nGbK, Berlin; House of Arts, Brno; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck; Stedelijk Museum, s’Hertogenbosch, NL; Galerie Hubert Bächler, Zurich; Galerie Römerapotheke, Zurich; Galerie Blank Projects, Cape-Town, RSA; Kunsthalle Baden-Badenweiterlesen