The theme of this group exhibition is the show the international state of the art at the end of 2009 through artists who have marked the year through very publicized exhibitions and events worldwide

Troels Wörsel, born in Denmark in 1950, is self-taught and since the 1970s has exhibited both in Denmark and abroad. This was also when he moved to Munich and later Cologne. In Munich he was affiliated with the Academy and worked in a studio supplied by the BASF concern. In those years he was heavily influenced by the German art scene which was the rallying ground for ambitious, international artists. Since 1997 Wörsel has lived and worked in Pietrasanta in Italy.

In the 1970s he was interested mostly in Pop art and conceptual art. Moreover philosophical issues such as the relationship between space and time characterised his art.

In the early 1980s the purely painterly caught his interest more than the idea behind the work. He experimented with the wild painting and contributed to the pioneer exhibition Rundschau Deutschland and Bildwechsel at West Berlin's Akademie der Künste.

Since 1969 Wörsel has participated in a large number of exhibitions: Biennale de Paris (1975), Fyns Stifts Kunstmuseum (1979), Städtisches Kunstmuseum Bonn (1982), Visual Arts Museum in New York (1983), Malmö Konsthall (1987), Nordiskt Konstcentrum in Helsinki (1989), Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik in Odense (1992, 1996), Kunstmuseet Trapholt in Kolding (1994), Musée des Beaux-Art de Nantes (1996), Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum in Tønder (2000), Reykjavik Art Museum (2002), Victoria Miro in London (2002), Kunstforeningen GL Strand in Copenhagen, Sophienholm in Lyngby (2004), Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Skärhamn (2006) and the 52. Venice Biennal (2007).

Born 1959, Dale Frank is generally regarded as having the longest CV of any Australian artist. His artistic career began in 1975 when the then 16 year old was awarded the Red Cross Art Award by John Olsen. Just five years later, and displaying a confidence beyond his years, Frank had solo exhibitions in Dublin, Budapest and Milan and, in the following year, in London, New York, Bologna and Perth. Back in Australia commercial success was matched with curatorial and critical acclaim: in 1982 he was included in the 4th Biennale of Sydney, and in 1983 his work was selected for show at Museo Palazzo Lanfranchi in Pisa, Italy. In that same year his work featured at Melbourne University gallery and in Perspecta ’83 at the Art Gallery of NSW. His inclusion in Australian Art – an American Perspective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and at the 1984 Venice Biennale cemented Frank’s international reputation. Since the 90’s Frank has continued to exhibit extensively in Australia. In 2000 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney held a survey exhibition of his work titled Ecstasy: 20 years of painting, and that same year he had a solo show in the Project Space at the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2005 he won the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize at the Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria. A major new monograph; So Far the Art of Dale Frank 2005 – 1980 was released last year.

Within an upcoming movement of European young artists using the language of the social and commercial context they grew up in, with the so-called popular culture and media as basic ingredients, Andy Wauman’s feeling for materials and meaning is a marker. His use of photography and his sculptural treatment of unusual materials is unique.
Wauman’s works speak about the possibility of freedom. They are messages with a romantic sense for anarchy and love. In his statements, he often uses images that have been violated, multiplied and copied by commercial media. He recuperates common metaphors and symbols and gives them back their original romantic touch or even ideological meaning. The poetic quality is striking. Wauman’s work combines subdued social criticism with a slumbering mythical desire for eternal freedom.

Andy Wauman comments on the nature of his artistic personality:

“Generally my work has it’s origins in my conviction that a truly living culture can only arise from social structures and that the only theory a contemporary artist can feed on is necessarily a social one. I do not recycle existing forms, I try to make new ones based on my own background. Which is what distinguishes an artist from a marketeer. I try to inject the spontaneous energy from the street into my artistic practice, and I create my own contribution to the ‘revolution of everyday life’ in the shape of texts and objects.
Therefor, a recurrent element in my work is my protesting against cynicism and a preference for the sensuality and romantic value of the materials of the street, the ones the vagabond knows better than the bourgeois. But rather than a political activist, I like to call myself a poetical terrorist.