Olaf Breuning


Olaf Breuning is a Swiss-born artist, born in Schaffhausen, who lives in New York City.

Works

  • Home 1/Home 2 30 minute video starring Brian Kerstetter. Home 1 is presented as a double-projection, where the main character can no longer distinguish the difference between reality and fiction. He wanders around a hotel room telling stories about himself and other people to the camera. As he tells the stories, they are simultaneously seen on the opposite screen. In Home 2 Brian Kerstetter plays an ignorant tourist staggering around the world from Switzerland to Africa and Japan to Papua New Guinea, crashing his western mentality upon the exotic places he goes.
  • Ugly Yelp, Apes, King, Hello Darkness With these installations, Breuning creates theatrical atmospheres using sound, video and light. These installations have been shown in many museums and are owned by collections internationally.
  • Easter Bunnies A photograph created on Easter Island, transforming Moai into Easter bunnies by setting up rabbit ears on C-stands in the extreme foreground.
  • Sibylle -- Photograph of a female model lying on a table, whose body has been affected by cultural references to Matthew Barney, Cindy Sherman, Pablo Picasso, and others, resulting a creepily mutilated creature.
  • Smoke Bombs Exemplifies Breuning's photographic technique of leaving the mess of production within frame, allowing the viewer to see behind the scenes of the production.

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions (selected)

In recent years he has exhibited his works at many group shows around the world, including The Somerset House, London; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel; Tinguely Museum, Basel; Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Musée Rath, Geneva and many other venues. Some of them are listed below:
2014Das Fremde ist nur in der Fremde fremd, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, CH
2013Ursula Palla und Olaf Breuning. Hin und Her, Binz 39, Zurich, CHMétamatic Reloaded, Tinguely Museum, Basel, CHLa realtà non è un luogo comune. Fotografie e video della Collezione d'arte della Julius Baer, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, CH
2012Holzwege. Sentieri erranti. Arte svizzera dalla collezione della Mobiliare, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, CHParallelwelt Zirkus, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, AUThrough the Looking Brain, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, CHIncongru. Quand l'art fait rire, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, CH
2011Through the Looking Brain, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DE
2010Press Art. Die Sammlung Annette und Peter Nobel, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, CH
2009Darkside II. Fotografische Macht und fotografierte Gewalt, Krankheit und Tod, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH200 Artworks. 25 Years Artists, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, JP
2008When fears become form, Centre d'art Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, CHSammlung/Collection Migros Museum für Gegenwartkunst Zürich 1978-2008, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, CHWhitney Biennial 2008, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
200712e Biennale de l'Image en mouvement, Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Geneva, CHWhat we bought, Camera Austria, Graz, AUAll about Laughter: humor in contemporary art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JPSix Feet Under. Autopsie unseres Umgangs mit Toten. Autopsy of Our Relation to the Dead, Kunstmuseum Bern, CH
2006Imagination becomes reality. Part IV. Borrowed images, Sammlung Goetz, München, DECindy Sherman, Gianni Motti, Olaf Breuning, Galerie Nicola von Senger, Zurich, CHSome tribes, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, CH
2003Urban Diaries. Young Swiss Art, Alcalá 31, Madrid, ESPM_ARS. Kunst und Krieg, :de:Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, AU
2002Lorbeer-Extrakt. Manor-Kunstpreis Schaffhausen 1987-2001, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, CH
2001M family. Die Bilder zum Migros Geschäftsbericht 2000, Migros Museum für Gegenwartkunst, Zurich, CH Up in the sky. Himmel in der Kunst der 90er Jahre, Kunsthaus Grenchen, Grenchen, CHCollaborations with Parkett: 1984 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
2000Eidgenössische Preise für freie Kunst 2000, Kunsthalle Fri Art, Freiburg, CHLet's be friends, Migros Museum für Gegenwartkunst, Zurich, CHEX25 Hochschule und Museum Für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich die Letzten 25 Jahre Halle, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Zurich, CHReality Bytes. Der medial vermittelte Blick, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, DE
1999Eidgenössische Preise für freie Kunst 1999, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, CH
1998Freie Sicht aufs Mittelmeer. Junge Schweizer Kunst, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, CH

Books

  • Ugly, 2000, monograph, Hatje Cantz,
  • Home, 2004, monograph, JPR/Ringier, Magasin, Les Musees de Strasbourg,
  • Queen Mary, 2006, drawing catalogue, JPR/Ringier,
  • Queen Mary II, 2010, monograph, JPR/Ringier, Zurich