HAUNCH OF VENISON BERLIN
10557 Berlin
PRESS RELEASE
DAMIEN HIRST
MICHAEL JOO:
Have You Ever Really
Looked at the Sun?
1 May 14 August 2010
Image:
Portrait of Damien Hirst and
Michael Joo, courtesy of
Johnny Shand Kydd
Heidestrasse 46
T + 49 (0) 30 39 74 39 63
F + 49 (0) 30 39 74 39 64
Germany berlin@haunchofvenison.com
www.haunchofvenison.com
Haunch of Venison Berlin is delighted to announce Have You Ever Really Looked at
the Sun? a two person exhibition by American artist Michael Joo (b.1966) and British
artist Damien Hirst (b.1965). The exhibition opens on 1 May and continues through
14 August 2010.
Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? is a unique collaboration between the
two artists, who met in Cologne in 1991 and have remained close friends since that
time. Engaged in a continuous, twenty-year discourse about their individual artistic
practices, this marks the first time Joo and Hirst have worked together to realise a
full-scale joint exhibition. Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? will feature new,
especially conceived sculptures and installations, as well as seminal paintings and
sculptures from Joo and Hirst.
Since gaining international attention after showing in the exhibition Some Went
Mad, Some Ran Away at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Joo has
employed a highly personal language in the creation of his art to express ideas
about identity, nature and the body. In key works like Improved Rack (Elk #18) (2010),
a wall-mounted sculpture of elk antlers Joo plays on the traditional presentation of
the hunters trophy by cutting the antlers into segments and extending them with
metal rods. Other major works are a painted pink, bronze life-size sculpture of a
zebra, Doppelganger (Pink Rocinante) (2009) and a new group of colorful paintings
of quartz crystals on shaped aluminum panels. Joo will also premier a sculptural
homage to Martin Kippenberger involving a framework of ice and prehistoric Irish
Elk antlers.
In dialogue with Joos works, Hirst brings together signature sculptures and
paintings for which he has become known. Included in the exhibition are
The Incredible Journey (2008), a zebra suspended in formaldehyde in a white
painted steel tank and The Black Sheep with Golden Horns (divided) (2009),
another major formaldehyde work shown here for the first time. Also on view
are Har Megiddo (2008), a monumental circular fly painting as well as The Dark
Continent (2010), a stainless steel medicine cabinet stacked with black pills,
behind glass.
//
Continues ...
HAUNCH OF VENISON BERLIN Heidestrasse 46
10557 Berlin
T + 49 (0) 30 39 74 39 63
F + 49 (0) 30 39 74 39 64
Germany berlin@haunchofvenison.com
www.haunchofvenison.com

For information and images please contact:

Ute Weingarten, artpress, Berlin

T + 49 (0) 30 21 96 18 43
E weingarten.artpress@uteweingarten.de

Bomi Odufunade, Haunch of Venison, London

T + 44 (0) 20 7495 5050
E bodufunade@hofv.com

EDITORS NOTES

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol, UK. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths
College, University of London. He lives and works in London and Devon. Solo
exhibitions include Cornucopia, Oceanographic Museum of Monaco (2010), No Love Lost,
The Wallace Collection, London (2009), Requiem, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev (2009), For the
Love of God, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2008), Astrup Fearnley Museet fur Moderne Kunst,
Oslo (2005), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2005) and the Archaeological Museum, Naples
(2004). In 1994 he received the fellowship of the DAAD Berliner Knstlerprogramm and the
Turner Prize in 1995. An exhibition of the artists private collection, Murderme, was held at
Serpentine Gallery, London in 2006.

Michael Joo

Michael Joo was born to Korean parents in 1966 in Ithaca, New York. He studied at
Washington University and went on to complete his masters at Yale School of Art. He lives
and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Chelsea Art Museum,
New York (2009), The New Art Gallery Walsall, United Kingdom (2009), PKM Gallery, Seoul
(2008), Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2006), Asia Society, New York (2005) and the Bohen
Foundation, New York (2005). Recent group exhibitions include P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Centre, Long Island (2008), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Berlin
(2008), Serpentine Gallery, London (2006), 6th Gwangju Biennale (2006), Denver Art
Museum, Denver (2006), Whitney Biennale (2000). Michael Joo represented Korea at the
49th Venice Biennale (2001, with Do-Ho Suh). His work can be found in the Murderme
Collection, London; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Guggenheim Museum, New York;
Museum of Modern Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis; Samsung Museum, Seoul and FNAC (Foundation National dArt
Contemporain), Paris.

Haunch of Venison

Founded in 2002 by Harry Blain and Graham Southern, Haunch of Venison works with some
of the most important and exciting artists working today, presenting a broad and critically
acclaimed programme of exhibitions at international gallery spaces in London, Berlin and
New York. The Berlin gallery opened in September 2007.