Atelier Van Lieshout’s “Humanoids” on Permanent Display in Miami Beach

Tue, Dec 3 - Sun, Dec 8  2019

December 3 through 8, Dutch multi-disciplinary artist Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) A.K.A Joep van Lieshout will exhibit new work at various locations during Miami Art Week. Internationally recognised for his immense sculptures, and large-scale installations straddling the lines of sculpture, architecture and “accidental” design, Van Lieshout–commonly known as AVL–aims to create an alternate utopia for the future, and in doing so fuses function with fiction. Often censored and highly controversial, the artist holds a particular fascination with the relationship between machine and humanity, technology’s tampering with nature’s building blocks triggering societal changes. His work pivots between rational and irrational, pragmatic and poetic, Joep is constantly sculpting new systems whether it be a machine, a “Free State “, a ” Zero footprint plan for the future”, themes surrounding autarky and power are omnipresent in his oeuvre. Humour forms an integral part of the artist’s work with inventive “inhabitable” sculptures that bring together functionality and aesthetics in public and private places. His ongoing interest in CryptoFuturism questions whether technological developments can have a positive impact on today’s issues or whether we should be skeptical of these new developments. AVL’s recent work reflects on the early 20th century Italian Futurists who broke with tradition to create a violently sped up advancement in thought.

Joep van Lieshout, Humanoids, Aluminium, various dimensions, on permanent display at Collins Canal Park 2019 . Picture by Robin Hill

Miami Beach Arts & Culture selected AVL as one of a handful of artists to create new work for the Miami Beach Convention Center. Humanoids, was commissioned by the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places and  is now permanently installed in the Collins Canal Park. The nine large-scale biomorphic sculptures formulate a subtle statement about our relationship to nature and origin story. The abstracted creatures utilize the park as their environment, encouraging viewers to engage and interact with them, discover their natural habitat and explore narratives of their beginnings. The Humanoids invite visitors to engage, stimulate social interaction and contemplation, whether it be to use them as rendezvous spots, places to remember, sketch, write, think or talk.The artist will be hosting Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami VIP and press tours through the installation.

At Design Miami, Carpenters Workshop Gallery is thrilled to present Humanoid (2014), the seed of thought for the larger public installation. Humanoid (2014) is on display at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, booth G07.

At Art Basel Miami Beach, Van Lieshout’s Unlimited series will be on display at Galeria OMR, three sculptures of swimming sperm, representing the life force of all beings. This signifier plays a recurring role for Atelier Van Lieshout’s artistic practise, Darwinism, survival, the notion that only one in 150 million achieves the fertilizing goal; the beginning of everything. The Unlimited series will be on view at Galería OMR, booth C17.Also at the main fair Nose Cart will be on view with Galerie Krinzinger. As part of his New Tribal Labrinth series in which AVL’s recurring themes examining the structures of power and revolution are linked to the end of the worlds’ resources, Nose Cart acts as a monument for new world order, a society inhabited by imaginary tribes, where rituals will be reinstated and re-evaluated. Galerie Krinzinger will be located at booth F22.

Joep van Lieshout, Humanoids, Aluminium, various dimensions, on permanent display at Collins Canal Park 2019. Picture by Robin Hill

About the Artist

Multidisciplinary artist Joep Van Lieshout (b. 1963 in Ravenstein, Netherlands) attended the Rotterdam Academy of the Arts from the age of sixteen, working solely under the name Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL) since founding his studio in 1995. AVL has exhibited at museums and galleries worldwide, most recently at New York’s Pioneer Works, and is in the collections of MoMA, New York; FNAC, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Prada Foundation, Milan; and Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Centre Pompidou, Cruller Muller, Folkswang, Boijmans, among others.