ESTHER MATHIS | FENSTER
Catalog Presentation | Thursday, November 9, 6-8pm (artist talk 7pm)
For her second solo exhibition at Livie Gallery, Esther Mathis (b. 1985) has recreated from memory windows of particular significance to her. Windows that she has spent many hours looking out through, and where she has watched the light come dancing in. These works evoke the remembered atmosphere of those window-lit spaces. Memory is often conceived of as a kind of glass through which we watch refractions of our previous selves as they fade into the distant past. And yet, it is hard to recall memories that specifically relate to light, and those we have are almost always related to windows we have known.
Read the full exhibition text by Leila Peacock here, and the German version here.
A catalog will be published on the occasion of the exhibition. Read the pdf version here.
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Regen 1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid and glue on glass
145 x 75 cm 6 parts, each part 45 x 35 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Milano 1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid on glass
120 x 85 cm, 2 parts, each 120 x 40 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Nacht 1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid and ink on glass
145 x 75 cm 6 parts, each part 45 x 35 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Atelier 1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid on glass
125 x 95 cm
4 parts, 2 of them 40 x 45 cm, 2 of them 80 x 45 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Atelier Binz39, 2023
mineral pigment fluid on glass
147 x 95 cm
4 parts, 2 of them 92 x 45 cm, 2 of them 40-50 x 45 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Nacht 3.1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid and ink on glass
45 x 30 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Nacht 2.1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid and ink on glass
75 x 50 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Nacht 2.2, 2023
mineral pigment fluid and ink on glass
75 x 50 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Milano 3, 2023
mineral pigment fluid on glass
55 x 30 cm
Esther Mathis
Fenster, Nacht 4.1, 2023
mineral pigment fluid and ink on glass
25 x 20 cm
Esther Mathis (*1985 Winterthur, Switzerland) lives and works in Zurich. She studied photography at the IED in Milan, where she was awarded a scholarship to the SVA in New York, completing her Master’s in Fine Arts at ZHdK in Zurich in 2015. Mathis received a grant of the city of Winterthur in 2014, and in 2019/20 she was awarded a grant for “Visual Arts” by UBS Kulturstiftung as well as the work grant of the canton of Zurich. Since 2020 the artist has been commissioned with several art in architecture projects which will be realized in the coming years.
Esther Mathis has been featured in solo and two person shows in Switzerland and abroad, including “DOings & kNOTs” at Kunsthalle Tallinn, Estonia, in 2015, “Phaenomena Materiae“ together with Brigham Baker at Kunstverein Friedrichshafen, Germany, in 2017, “Wo deine Füsse stehen” at Kunsthalle Arbon, Switzerland, in 2018, “Luminaire” in the summer of 2021 at BINZ39 Foundation Zurich, “Nightshades” at Livie Gallery, Zurich in 2021, and “Fenster” at Livie Gallery, Zurich in 2023.
Her work was part of numerous group shows including the Shenzhen Photo Biennale, China, in 2016, the sculpture biennial Weiertal “Paradise, lost” in Winterthur, Switzerland, curated by Christoph Doswald in 2019, “The Big Rip, Bounce, Chill or Crunch?” at Last Tango in 2019, the “Werkschau” at Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland in 2016, 2017 and 2019, “Focus” and various other group exhibitions at Kunst Museum Winterthur from 2011-2022, “Weit” at Kunst(Zeug)Haus Rapperswil, Switzerland in 2020, and “Werk- und Atelierstipendien der Stadt Zürich” at Helmhaus, Zurich, Switzerland in 2021, among others.
Mathis’ works are included in several institutional and corporate collections in Switzerland.
Photos: Esther Mathis