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John Isaacs
The work of John Isaacs work produces altered modes of historic perception. Approaching materials from a temporary understanding, the artist transforms oldness and newness into ambiguous categories. Simultaneously, Isaacs reverts the symbology used by religious institutions or popular culture to establish parameters of value and meaning. By liberating these signs from their regular references they can be arranged as a common ground where a truly human aspect manifests itself, with the disposal and tendency towards transcendence.
The initial estrangement produced by Isaacs’ works concerns a shared essence between humans that the artist decides to sublimate but also to parody, using a great diversity of mediums and materials. John Isaacs employs language and referentiality for an adverse purpose, instead of reaffirming meaning, he cancels it in order to reveal the emotional dimension of things and their relation to the human body.
His recent solo exhibitions include: A Gateway to Possible Worlds, Centre Pompidou, Mertz, France (2022); Energetic Gestures, Kunstsaele, Berlin, Germany (2022); Le Moyen Âge Réinventé, Palais des Beaux Arts, Lille, France (2022); Today I started loving you again, Galerie Michael Haas & Kunstlager Haas, Berlin, Germany (2021); Dust, Traveisa Cuatro, Madrid, España (2019); Archipelago, Galleria Poggiali, Milan, Italy (2018); Sublimi Anatomie, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2020); The 13 Corner ,Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, México (2016) ;INCONSOLUS votes for children, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid (2015); Forgiveness and Reconciliation, Musei Vaticani, Rome (2015);Absurd builders, handymen utopia, Abbaye Saint André, Centre d’art contemporain, Meymac, France (2015);The Thousand-Thigh Hospice: experiments in healing, CAN, Centre d’Art de Neuchatel, Switzerland (2015);Fleischeslust, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany (2015); About Trees, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (2015); A Brief History of the Future,Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels (2015); ); The name is Burroughs − Expanded Media, Sammlung Falckenberg, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2013).
Recent Group Exhibitions: One day It will Be Like When We ́ve Already Lived, Galerie Steinek, Vienna, Austria (2021),Figuratively Speaking, O54 Exhibition Series at Am Tacheles, Berlin, Germany (2021); Portal #2Luigi Solito Galleria Contemporanea, Naples, Italy (2021);Please Leave This World, Maelle Galerie, Paris, France (2020).
His work has also been featured in numerous international museums, institutions and galleries, such as: The Saatchi Gallery, London; The Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; MARCO, Vigo; Tate Liverpool, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg and others.
John Isaacs lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

2016. Polychrome on wood, gesso. 27 x 15 x 23 cm

2016. Steel, wood, 24 carat gold leaf. 210 x 180 x 180 cm

Patined bronze, steel. Variable dimensions. 2013.

Patinated bronze. 152 x 51 x 21 cm. 2016.


2010. Glazed ceramic. 112 x 70 x 50 cm

Glazed ceramic, steel and copper. 90 x 70 x 80 cm. 2015.

Glazed ceramic, steel. 75 x 10 x 120 cm. 2011.

2013. Ceramic, steel, shellack. 65 x 89 x 7 cm

Framed archival c-type print. 141 x 101 x 5 cm. 2015.

Car door and neon. 275 x 170 cm. 2012.

Glazed ceramic, steel. 96 x 65 x 65 cm. 2015.

Glazed ceramic. 72 x 46 x 37 cm. 2013.

Plaster, resin, Damien Hirst’s trousers. Variable dimensions. 2010.

Bronze and gold leaf. 310 x 4 x 4 cm. 2015.

2012. Patined bronze, steel, car paint. 170 x 51 x 51 cm

2012. Patined bronze, steel, car paint. 170 x 51 x 51 cm