Dietrich - Galerie Francesca Pia

Opening Friday, June 7, 17–21
June 8 – August 23, 2024

Gallery opening hours during Zurich Art Weekend:

Friday, June 7, 11–21
Saturday, June 8, 11–20
Sunday, June 9, 11–18

The exhibition brings together three generations of women artists who share a common strategy of disappearance. It highlights artists whose work subtly infiltrates existing works or situations, often making their presence felt in almost imperceptible ways. These artists understand the rules yet subvert them, creating pathways to ignite counterfires and ensure their voices are heard, intact and essential. This position is often challenging as it opposes market and institutional norms, often resulting in precarious material and existential situations. I thought of the exhibition as a celebration of artists who have taught me how to look and listen with more attention.

It all started with the work of Jacqueline Mesmaeker, who passed away last year at the age of 93. From her prototypes for wallpapers in the 1960s, a perfect embodiment of the art of anonymity and camouflage, to her drawings embedded within existing books, and her insertion of pink fabrics into architectural gaps, the theme of existence on the verge of disappearance was central to her practice. She made me aware that other artists had used that paradoxical strategy of hiding to be better seen, and that most of them were women. Some, like Sturtevant, Sherrie Levine, Lutz Bacher, Ana Jotta, Rochelle Feinstein or Isabelle Cornaro, use and divert existing signs and languages to construct an alternative story or to dismantle existing ones. Others, like Pati Hill, Beverly Buchanan, or Cinzia Ruggeri – respectively writer, parasitologist, and designer – who complexify the notion of what it means to be an artist, by coming from other worlds, assuming other positions, or sometimes simply staying silent.

These strategies resonate with those of Marie Angeletti and Camilla Wills, two artist friends whose aesthetic and existential courage has been an inspiration. Both have resisted the art world’s expectations for a coherent, unique, and distinctive body of work. Instead, they infuse their analytical and existential experience into whatever they choose to work with or upon, sometimes visibly, other times not. Olga Balema, Steffani Jemison, Katja Mater, Hana Miletić, and Eleanor Ivory Weber are artists of the same generation who share their exacting mode of working and living.

Supporting these elusive artists is a network of women gallerists to whom I also wanted to pay tribute: Francesca Pia, Bridget Donahue, Florence Bonnefous, Isabella Ritter, Carole Greene, and Nadja Vilenne.

– Anne Pontégnie

Available works

Marie Angeletti
Untitled, 2023
Digital print on painted dibond
110 x 85 cm

EUR 7’000 (excl. VAT)

Marie Angeletti
Minerve, 2023
Digital print on painted dibond, two parts
each 110 x 82.5 cm

EUR 11’000 (excl. VAT)

Marie Angeletti
Canoe, 2024
110 x 50 x 70 cm

EUR 9’000 (excl. VAT)

Lutz Bacher
Marlene, 2018
Acrylic on canvas, framed in black plexiglass
122 x 122 x 7.5 cm

USD 70’000 (excl. VAT)

Olga Balema
Loop 12286, 2023
Polycarbonate sheeting, acrylic paint, solvent
34.3 x 41.9 x 160 cm

USD 16’000 (excl. VAT)

Olga Balema
Loop 56210, 2023
Polycarbonate sheeting, acrylic paint, solvent
62.9 x 24.1 x 83.8 cm

USD 14’000 (excl. VAT)

Beverly Buchanan
Photograph for Proposed Sculpture at Wave Hill, c. 1980
Photograph
20.3 x 25.4 cm

Beverly Buchanan
Untitled, c. 1971–1988
Iron
15.2 x 14 x 33 cm

USD 50’000 (excl. VAT)

Beverly Buchanan
Untitled, c. 1980
Oyster shell tabby mixture
25.4 x 11.4 x 6.4 cm

USD 18’000 (excl. VAT)

Beverly Buchanan
Untitled (Miniature Architectural Construction), c. 1983
Cast concrete and enamel paint
7.6 x 7 x 6.4 cm

USD 7’500 (excl. VAT)

Isabelle Cornaro
(Composition) (detail), 2024
Objects in vitrine, mixed media
88 x 190 cm

EUR 18’000 (excl. VAT)

Rochelle Feinstein
Wonderful Weather, 2021
Oil on birch veneer
83.8 x 83.8 cm

USD 40’000 (excl. VAT)

Rochelle Feinstein
Dawned, 2022
Acrylic, acrylic enamel spray paint on cotton drop cloth
130 x 130 cm

USD 48’000 (excl. VAT)

Pati Hill
Untitled (circuit), c. 1977–79
Xerograph, signed on the back
28.9 x 21.6 cm

EUR 5’500 (excl. VAT)

Pati Hill
Untitled (meat), c. 1977–79
Xerograph
35.5 x 21 cm

EUR 5’500 (excl. VAT)

Pati Hill
Untitled (carnation), c. 1977–79
Xerograph
28 x 21.5 cm

EUR 5’000 (excl. VAT)

Pati Hill
Untitled (beans), c. 1975–79
Xerograph
28 x 21.5 cm

EUR 5’000 (excl. VAT)

Pati Hill
Untitled (feather), 1979
Xerograph, annotated, signed and dated 1979 on verso
21.6 x 35.3 cm

EUR 6’000 (excl. VAT)

Pati Hill
Untitled, c. 1980
Xerograph
21 x 32.9 cm

EUR 5’000 (excl. VAT)

Steffani Jemison
Same Time, 2017
Acrylic on clear polyester film
76.2 x 50.8 cm

USD 2’500 (excl. VAT)

Steffani Jemison
Same Time, 2017
Acrylic on clear polyester film
119.4 x 50.8 cm

USD 3’500 (excl. VAT)

Steffani Jemison
Untitled, 2021
Acrylic, tempered glass table top, hardware
149.9 x 76.2 x 12.7 cm ( 59 x 30 x 5 inches )

USD 7’500 (excl. VAT)

Steffani Jemison
Untitled, 2019
UV cured inkjet print on tempered glass, museum board, frame
113.7 x 78.7 cm

USD 10’000 (excl. VAT)

Ana Jotta
Tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse, 2024
Paperclay, glaze
⌀ 29 cm

Sherrie Levine
Coyote Postcard Collage: 1–16, 1999
16 individual postcards, framed
Ed. 1 (+ 1 AP)
each 52.5 x 42 x 2.5 cm

USD 120’000 (excl. VAT)

Katja Mater
Dare Note / Read On, 2021
2 C-prints framed double sided, custom made frame
Ed. 1/3 (+ 1 AP)
33 x 24.3 cm

EUR 2’800 (excl. VAT)

Katja Mater
Are Drawn To / Inward Motion, 2021
2 C-prints framed double sided, custom made frame
Ed. 1/3 (+ 1 AP)
33 x 24.3 cm

EUR 2’800 (excl. VAT)

Katja Mater
Reversed Moments / In Every Memo, 2021
2 C-prints framed double sided, custom made frame
Ed. 1/3 (+ 1 AP)
33 x 24.3 cm

EUR 2’800 (excl. VAT)

Katja Mater
A Keen Raeder / Speaks Clear, 2021
2 C-prints framed double sided, custom made frame
Ed. 1/3 (+ 1 AP)
33 x 24.3 cm

EUR 2’800 (excl. VAT)

Jacqueline Mesmaeker
Matthis (filmstill), 2002
Digitized mini DV, color, no sound
1:06 min

EUR 8’000 (excl. VAT)