Ad Minoliti Preview Kunstpalais Erlangen

A whisper in the forest - only to be found in fairy tales and fables? Hidden in the subterranean realm of the forest lies a fine network of root-like threads. Starting from the fungi that spread over the forest soil, a network is formed that connects trees and living creatures beyond species boundaries. It provides the exchange of nutrients and enables the growth of forests in areas where nature seemed to have been irretrievably destroyed. After all, it was a fungus that was the first life to appear after the nuclear catastrophe in Hiroshima. More than just a harbinger of autumn, these microscopically thin fungal roots show us how existence is possible in the ruins of an ecosystem.

With the exhibition fables of abstraction and fungi, Ad Minoliti (* 1980 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) transforms the Kunstpalais into just such an underground realm full of mushrooms, roots and forest creatures. In a site-specific installation of new paintings, sculptures, and murals, Minoliti creates, like the subterranean fungal networks, an inclusive space that acknowledges the interconnectedness of all beings while introducing an entirely new concept. With bold colors, sensual geometric shapes, and playfulness, they create paintings that transcend their two-dimensional frames. Inspired by the symbolism in children's books and its fairy-tale forest creatures, Minoliti opens dialogues that go far beyond ecological issues. Translated into a language of geometric abstraction that defies categorization, Ad Minoliti's work addresses contents of feminism, classism, speciesism, and adultism and questions normative notions of identity and gender.

Accompanying the exhibition, Kunstpalais presents a diverse program of events, including the first edition of Ad Minoliti's Feminist School of Painting in the German-speaking countries.

Ad Minoliti (b. 1980 in Buenos Aires, AR) lives and works in Buenos Aires. Minoliti’s multivalent practice draws from the visual languages of modernist forms, popular culture and geometric architectural representation. The artist’s work, which encompasses painting, print, and sculpture, demonstrates sustained focus on eroticism, gender expression and techno futurism. This emphasis, expressed in the intricate scenes and characters staged by Minoliti, imagines utopic transhuman and genderqueer futures while maintaining and insisting on the universality of our shared humanity. Minoliti’s work has been shown in numerous institutional solo exhibitions worldwide, including Tate St Ives, UK (2022), Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré (CCCOD), Tours (2021), Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2020), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), North Adams, curated by Isabel Casso (2020), and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, curated by Carla Barbero and Marcos Krämer (2019). Minoliti took part in the 58th Venice Biennale, curated by Ralph Rugoff and the 13th Gwangju Biennale, curated by Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala. Their work has entered numerous collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA), Buenos Aires, and M WOODS Museum, Beijing. Their work is currently on display at Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna. Later this year, Minoliti has an upcoming solo exhibition at the Kunstpalais Erlangen in Germany. Additionally, they will participate in group exhibitions at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, CC Foundation, Shanghai, and Frac Île-de-France, Romainville.