This publication features an essay by Kate Macfarlane, co-director of Drawing Room and curator of Marking Language, images of a selection of the works and reading lists from the artists in Marking Language.
Pavel Büchler (b. 1952, Prague) lives and works in Manchester. Studied at the Institute of Applied Arts and the School of Graphic Arts, Prague. Awards include the Northern Art Prize (2009); and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists (2012). Select solo exhibitions include Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2016); Ikon, Birmingham (2015); Künstlerhaus Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz (2014); Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (2013); Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, St. Louis (2011); and DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2010). Select group exhibitions include Sanguine, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2018); The Show Must Go On, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern (2017); Cambio de rumbo, Tabacalera, Madrid (2017); Toda Percepción es una Interpretación: You Are Part of It, CIFO Art Space, Miami (2016); Quand Fondra la neige, où ira le blanc, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2016); Generosity: On the Art of Giving, National Gallery, Prague (2015); Last Year at Marienbad: A film as Art, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen (2015); The Problem of God, K21, Düsseldorf (2015); The Allegory of a Cave Painting, Extra City and Middleheim Museum, Antwerp (2014); Speaking in Tongues, CCA, Glasgow (2014); Postscript: Writing after Conceptual Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2012); Dot.Systems, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen (2012); Les Marques Aveugles, Centre D'Art Contemporain, Geneva (2011); From Trash to Treasure, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel (2011); Image to be projected until it vanishes, Museion, Bolzano (2011); Luc Tuymans: A Vision of Central Europe, Aurentshuis, Bruges (2010); Under Destruction, Tinguely Museum, Basel (2010); and FischGrätenMelkStand, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2010).
Matias Faldbakken (b. 1973, Denmark) lives and works in Oslo. He studied at the Academy of Fine Art, Bergen, Norway and at the Academy of Fine Art, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Faldbakken’s practice holds in perpetual tension the forces of proposition and cancellation, vandalism and erasure, aesthetic generosity and conceptual restraint, the possibility of language and its abstraction into illegibility. IN recent works, mass-produced containers are subjected to various manipulations and often rendered useless. The objects he adapts often veer between the iconic and the almost painfully generic. Residencies include: IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden (2004), Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2002-03), and NIFCA Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art,Helsinki, Finland (2001). Select solo exhibitions include: Matias Faldbakken, Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2013); Intervention #21: Matias Faldbakken, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2012); Portrait Portrait of of a a Generation Generation, OCA, Oslo, Norway & Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium (2012); Matias Faldbakken, The Power Station, Dallas, TX (2011); That Death of Which One Does Not Die, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (2010); and Shocked into Abstraction, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK & National Museum of Oslo, Norway (2009). Selected group exhibitions include: El Rey de Icod, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Spain (2014); Chat Jet (Part 2) Sculpture in Reflection, Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, Austria (2014); Take Liberty!, The National Museum of Art, Design & Architecture, Oslo, Norway (2014); The Crime Was Almost Perfect, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2014); and Marking Language, Drawing Room, London (2013). Faldbakken has work in many public collections, including: FRAC, Nord Pas de Calais, Dunkerque; DekaBank, Frankfurt am Main; The Dmitris Daskalopoulos Collection, Athens; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; The National Museum of Art, Design and Architecture, Oslo; The Speyer Family Collection, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and The Rubell Family Collection, Miami. He is represented by Simon Lee Gallery, London / Hong Kong; Standard (OSLO), Oslo, Norway; Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, CH; and Paula Cooper, New York, NY.
Karl Holmqvist (b. 1964, Västerås) lives and works in Berlin. Holmqvist was the recipient of the Arthur Köpke Memory Fund Award (2013) and has participated in the Venice Bienniale (2003, 2011); and Performa, New York (2005, 2007, 2013). Solo exhibitions include ONE CHILD PER HOUSEHOLD, Dépendance, Brussels (2018); KAPALBHATI, Sant'Andrea de Scaphis, Rome (2017); READ DEAR, Camden Arts Centre, London (2016); The Power Station, Dallas (2016); MEN ARE WOMEN, Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles (2015); HERE’S GOOD LOOKING @U, KID, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York (2015); and Give Poetry A Try, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2013). Select group exhibitions include Lavoro, Indipendenza Studio, Rome (2017); From Concrete to Liquid to Spoken Worlds to the Word, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2017); Klara Liden I Karl Holmqvist, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig (2016); Occupational Therapy, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis (2015); The Reluctant Narrator, Museu Berardo, Lisbon (2014-15); New Ways Of Doing Nothing, Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria (2014); Marking Language, Drawing Room, London (2013); and Ecstatic Alphabets, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012).
Bernardo Ortiz (b. 1972, Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in Bogotá. From 1990-1995 he studied for a BFA in Visual Arts from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá and an Associate Degree in Literature from University of the Andes, Bogotá, followed by a MA in Philosophy at Universidad del Valle, Cali (2000-2002). His recent solo shows include Essay, Casas Riegner, Bogotá (2013); Game Piece, with Erick Beltrán, Casas Riegner, Bogotá and Volt, Bergen (2013); Ephemeropterae, TBA 21, Vienna (2013); Drawings, Casas Riegner, Bogotá (2011); and Model No2. Fragment of Oct.12, 2011, Frieze Art Fair, Frame, Casas Riegner Gallery, London (2011). Ortiz's recent group exhibitions include Secret Codes, Luisa Strina Gallery, São Paulo (2013); The Circle walked Casually, Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle, Berlin (2013); Ignoring Saber, 43 room (Inter) National Artists, Medellín (2013); Nominees Canson Prix Exhibition, Petit Palais, Paris (2013); Music, Casas Riegner, Bogotá (2013); Marking Language, Drawing Room, London (2013); 30th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2012); Modern Fictions, Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Bogotá (2012); Empathy, Houses Riegner Gallery, Bogotá (2012); Modelling Standard, Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona (2012); and Air de Lyon, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2012).