Curated by Christopher Kane
Galerie Gugging, Klosterneuburg
June 23 – October 09, 2022

The galerie gugging invites you to a premiere of a special kind, where, for the first time, artworks of the renowned fashion designer Christopher Kane will be on display. In the exhibition “curated by christopher kane” the siblings Christopher & Tammy Kane present their favorite works of the Gugging Artists and their colleague’s hand in hand with Christopher Kane’s expressive works. A dream in neon, glitter & haute couture.
The legendary “curated by …” exhibition series of the galerie gugging goes into the third round. After Johann Garber and Daniel Spoerri, it is Christopher Kane’s turn – one of the world’s hottest fashion designers. This is a special collaboration for the galerie gugging,which gallery director Nina Katschnig has been looking forward to for a long time. Already during the first cooperation in 2016, Christopher Kane exhibited works by the Gugging Artists in perfect harmony with his collection at that time in his London flagship store. Followed by a photo shoot at the galerie gugging for the fashion designer’s Pre-Fall 2017 Collection, for which he was inspired by works by Johann Korec and, in particular, Heinrich Reisenbauer. In 2022, this collaboration is now to continue in a very special way.

To get everything on track for the upcoming exhibition “curated by christopher kane“, Christopher & Tammy Kane, who jointly run the Christopher Kane fashion label, paid a visit to the galerie gugging in March 2022. During their visit, the friendly Scottish pair of siblings spent a whole day enthusiastically browsing the Gugging collection of works in order to put a varied, coherent selection of the Gugging Artists and their colleagues together that match Christopher Kane’s exciting debut works.

Christopher Kane was born in 1982 in Newarthill, Scotland, as the youngest of five children. He attended Taylor High, where his sisters and art teacher Janey Broughnan nurtured his talent and encouraged his off-kilter imagination. At 18, Christopher arrived in London to realize his dream of studying at Central Saint Martins. In 2006, he graduated with an award-winning M.A. show and that same year founded the eponymous label, Christopher Kane, with his sister Tammy. This was followed in 2019 by More Joy, their second fashion line. Success was not long in coming. Today, Christopher Kane is a permanent guest in the fashion bibles of the world and has already won numerous awards, including the Vogue Fashion Fund and five British Fashion Awards. Then in 2020, Christopher Kane rediscovered his love of painting when the situational pause also abruptly halted his otherwise fast-moving world. Kissed by creativity, Kane spontaneously posted some of his artworks on Instagram. This is how the idea for a joint exhibition at the galerie gugging was born. Gallery director Nina Katschnig was immediately enthusiastic: “When I saw Christopher’s bold new works on Instagram, I knew immediately: this is a perfect fit for us – he somehow has no limits!” Christopher himself is a self-confessed Art Brut fan and says: “There’s a spontaneity to Art Brut or Outsider Art – that feeling of a skill or expression that just seems to come from nowhere, the absence of ego in art brut is what makes it so interesting to me.” It is precisely this spontaneity, coupled with his flamboyant touch, that can be found in Christopher Kane’s expressive artworks, which range from small-scale drawn heads in acrylic to six-foot large canvases in neon. From these, personalities in glitter, acrylic, or haute couture greet you, leaving a lasting impression on the viewer in their directness.

more. www.galeriegugging.com