Is it possible to break and bend the straight, rigid, and chronological timeline of art history? How does returning to a work you finished years ago and transforming it through chemical processes affect memory? This year’s winner of the prestigious Maria Lassnig Prize, New York-based interdisciplinary artist Carrie Yamaoka, invites us to explore the fluid nature of time, light, and material with this debut solo exhibition in Germany. On the no-26 art radar this time is a fascinating exhibition that transforms the gallery into a massive realm of reflection.
Preparing to open its doors in the atrium of the Galerie der Gegenwart, the contemporary art space of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the exhibition serves as an inventory of Carrie Yamaoka’s deep curiosity about mutable materials and reflective surfaces. Masterfully oscillating between the disciplines of painting, photography, and sculpture, the artist’s works bring together photographic panels, texts, and mirror-like image carriers. Chemical processes and volatile transformations form the very spine of her practice, through which she investigates the possibilities of recording and documentation.
Artworks Defying Chronology: “Redux” and “Revisited”
One of the most radical methods separating Yamaoka from her contemporaries is her challenge to the traditional idea of linear art production. The artist returns to a work she completed years ago after a long period of time has passed, manipulating it physically or chemically, and reconstructing it.
The terms redux (revived) and revisited found in the titles of double-dated works in the exhibition, such as 20 by 20 (green) 2007/2023 or purple x gray redux 1997/2022/2024, are the clearest evidence of this temporal bending. Instead of creating a rigid art-historical archive, she leaves her works open-ended, like living organisms in a state of continuous transformation. The reflective polyester foils, urethane, and epoxy resins used by the artist trap the light of the gallery space, the architecture, and the very image of the viewer inside the canvas. The works before us cease to be static objects and transform into fluid mirrors of perspective that constantly change with the movements of the viewer.
Works cast from flexible urethane resin, such as 68 by 12 redux, stand out in the exhibition by pushing the mutable boundaries of the material. Produced through a combination of aluminum blocks, wooden panels, and mixed media, these layered surfaces remind the viewer that consuming an image is not all that easy. Yamaoka’s paintings rewrite themselves every time you look at them, depending on the immediate light and the angle at which you stand.
Carrie Yamaoka presents a striking exhibition proving that memory is not a fixed warehouse, but a continuously renewed process akin to a chemical reaction. We highly recommend that all no-26 readers traveling to Hamburg starting from the end of August drop by this mirrored labyrinth at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and witness the bending of time firsthand.
Exhibition Details:
- Venue: Hamburger Kunsthalle (Galerie der Gegenwart – Atrium, Hamburg, Germany)
- Artist: Carrie Yamaoka (Winner of the Maria Lassnig Prize)
- Exhibition Title: Carrie Yamaoka (Maria Lassnig Prize Exhibition)
- Dates: August 21, 2026 – January 10, 2027 (Upcoming Exhibition)
