Opening on Friday, November 16, 2007, 7 – 9pm

The Michael Janssen Gallery Berlin is proud to present the first solo exhibition by Martin Fletcher – Systems House in Germany. Fletcher, who appears either under the name Martin Fletcher, the pseudonym Systems House or a combination of the two, will be displaying filigree sculptures made of steel, brass and plexiglass in the exhibition. The delicate constructions, which recall old-fashioned radio antennae and receptor systems, refer to the language of form of modernistic architecture and allude to the primary structures of minimal art objects.
Like the name Systems House, which is more evocative of a software company than of a private individual, the cool, technical sculptures deny any level of rapprochement. Yet, despite their geometric austerity, the works develop a brittle charm thanks to the almost haphazard rhythm created by the synthetic panels and the tower-like structures’ teetering quest. And precisely this unsteadiness grants the observer a glimpse of their creator.
Martin Fletcher (born 1976), who earned a Master’s degree from Goldsmiths College London at the end of 2006,lives and works in London. His works were displayed in the group exhibition Distinction with William Anskis and Shaan Syed at the Michael Janssen Gallery in Cologne in spring 2007.

Opening on Friday, November 16, 2007, 7 – 9pm

The Michael Janssen Gallery Berlin is proud to present the first solo exhibition with Hughie O'Donoghue.
“... Hughie O’Donoghue’s artistic project has been nothing less than the rehabilitation of the human presence in painting. And it is really the presence, rather than the image of the figure per se, that is at stake here. This aim should be considered against the background of the systematic deconstruction of the human subject in a great deal of contemporary philosophical and cultural theory. O'Donoghue's concern is ... the retreat from a belief in art’s ability to embody meaning without irony or without the protective insulation of some other distancing device. A great many of O’Donoghue’s works could be construed as attempted answers to the question of wether painting today can encompass human experience, wether it is equal to adressing life in all its absurdity, complexity and tragedy.
O’Donoghue’s working method, in repeatedly building up and breaking down a paint surface, so that it is as if an image is, as it were, discovered or unearthed within it, brought to light, migth be compared to a process of digging and probing the land. It is, figuratively speaking, equivalent to a kind of archeological excavation.“ – Aidan Dunne
Hughie O’Donoghue (born 1953), who earned a Master’s degree from Goldsmiths College London in 1982, lives and works in London and Ireland. O'Donoghue has been included in exhibitions at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and the Berkeley Art Museum. He has also had solo exhibitions in the Haus der Kunst Munich and in the Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin.