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John Isaacs

Lancaster, United Kingdom. 1968
Architecture of Empathy

Palis des Beaux Arts, Lille, France, 2022.
Group Show.

GATEAWAY TO POSSIBLE WORLDS

Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France, 2022.
Group Show.

GATEAWAY TO POSSIBLE WORLDS

Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France, 2022.
Group Show.

Today I started loving you again.

Curated by Philipp Bollmann, Galerie Michael Haas & Kunstlager Haas, Berlin, Germany, 2021.

Today I started loving you again.

Curated by Philipp Bollmann, Galerie Michael Haas & Kunstlager Haas, Berlin, Germany, 2021.

Today I started loving you again.

Curated by Philipp Bollmann, Galerie Michael Haas & Kunstlager Haas, Berlin, Germany, 2021.

Dust

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2019.

Dust

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2019.

DUST (18)

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2019.

Dust

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2019.

Dust

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2019.

The 13 Corners

Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2016.

The 13 Corners

Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2016.

The 13 Corners

Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2016.

Inconsolus, Votes for Children

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

Inconsolus, Votes for Children

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

Inconsolus, Votes for Children

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

Inconsolus, Votes for Children

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

Inconsolus, Votes for Children

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

Playing Pool with a Rope

Metropol Park, Berlin, Germany, 2015.

Playing Pool with a Rope

Metropol Park, Berlin, Germany, 2015.

Playing Pool with a Rope

Metropol Park, Berlin, Germany, 2015.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

Fool's Food

CAN, Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2009.

Fool's Food

CAN, Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2009.

Fool's Food

CAN, Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2009.

Fool's Food

CAN, Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 2009.

NeóFuture

Les Abattoirs, Museum of Modern Art, Toulouse. France, 2008.

NeóFuture

Les Abattoirs, Museum of Modern Art, Toulouse. France, 2008.

NeóFuture

Les Abattoirs, Museum of Modern Art, Toulouse. France, 2008.

NeóFuture

Les Abattoirs, Museum of Modern Art, Toulouse. France, 2008.

Is More Than This is More Than This

De Bond, Bruges, Belgium, 2003.

Is More Than This is More Than This

De Bond, Bruges, Belgium, 2003.

Is More Than This is More Than This

De Bond, Bruges, Belgium, 2003.

The work of John Isaacs 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.

John Isaacs has exhibited extensively on an international level. Exhibitions include: Wundersame Welten, Kleihuesbau Museum, Kornwestheim, Germany (2023); MONOMATERIAL, Kunstsæle, Berlin, Germany (2023); 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 & Kunst Lager Haas, Berlin, Germany (2021); Archipelago, Galleria Po!iali, Milan, Italy (2018); Eat me, Kunstmuseum Trapholt, Kolding, Denmark (2018); Da uno a Dieci, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy (2018); The inner skin – Art and Shame, Marta Herford Museum, Germany (2016); The 13 Corners, Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico (2016); A Brief History of the Future, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels (2015); About Trees, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland (2015); Fleischeslust, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany (2015); The Thousand-Thigh Hospice: experiments in healing, CAN Centre d’Art de Neuchatel, Switzerland (2015); Absurd builders, handymen utopia, Abbaye Saint André, Centre d’art contemporain, Meymac, France (2015); Forgiveness and Reconciliation, Musei Vaticani, Rome, Italy (2015); INCONSOLUS votes for children, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain (2015); Alice im Wunderland der Kunst, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (2012); Highlights from the Collection II, The Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, United States (2012); Dream Time, Les Abat- toirs, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Toulouse, France (2009); In the darkest hour there may be light, The Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2007); Rockers Island: The Olbricht Collection, Museum Folkwang Essen, Germany (2007); Paul Thek in the context of contemporary art, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2007); Mike Kelly’s The Uncanny, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (2004); Les Grands Spectacles, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2004); Melodrama, Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Palacio de los Condes de Gabia/Centro José Guerrero, Granada, Spain (2002) and MARCO, Vigo, Spain (2003); Minimal Maximal, Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (2001); Spectacular Bodies, The Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2000); Disasters of War, KW, Berlin, Germany (2000); Young British Artists VI, The Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom (1996); among others.

John Isaacs lives and works in Berlin.

cast from light and dark your shadow is no different from mine

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

Let the golden age begin

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

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

There is no story that is not true

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

Detail view
You can give everything you have to others, and lose nothing of yourself

2010. Glazed ceramic. 112 x 70 x 50 cm

If I said you could fall in love would you believe me

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

Things that can be are that which we know

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

Married to the same idiocy

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

The long way home

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

Everything is not enough

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

Inconsolus, Votes for Children

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2015.

The Architecture of Empathy

Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain, 2013.

There is no story that is not true

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

Are we not the same you and I

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

What lies before what lies behind

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

What lies before what lies behind (Detail)

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