Galerie von Vertes is proud to present George Condo – Almost Human, an exhibition showcasing works on paper and canvas spanning 1984–2020. George Condo – Almost Human will open at PAD London on 10 October, and will be viewable online from then on. 

Reacting to the zeitgeist of the Reagan era in which a new conservatism in social, political, and economic life arose, Condo – like his contemporaries Warhol, Haring, Schnabel – addresses the extreme superficiality and narcissism of the flourishing consumer society and its worship of materialism. Contrary to the sixties and seventies, when America’s confidence became undermined, the eighties can be seen as a new “Gilded Age ” that was selfish, superficial, glitzy, greedy, divisive, and destructive. The rise of the yuppie to whom the symbolic importance of exclusivity and status takes precedence over any issues involving genuine empathy, the explosion of blockbuster movies, and the emergence of cable networks like CNN and MTV – which introduced the music video and launched the careers of many iconic artists – instilled in America a newfound confidence. 

Undermining this new conservatism, George Condo created a house of mirrors that accommodated a myriad of characters satirising modern foolishness, analogue to Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools (1494). He coined the terms Artificial Realism and Psychological Cubism to define his lexicon of amusing caricatures, profound and intimate portraits, and grotesque abstractions. His creations are dark, weird, and have an outlandish wit that refuses to be easily digested.