ANASTASIA SAMOYLOVA AND OLAF METZEL

We are pleased to announce a double exhibition by photographer Anastasia Samoylova and sculptor Olaf Metzel.

In their works, both Samoylova and Metzel negotiate current political issues and provoke reflection on socio-cultural questions.

In her artistic practice, Anastasia Samoylova employs strategies of commercial photography to illuminate the interface between staged perception and reality. In this visual study Floridas, the artist depicts the Sunshine State in all its contradictions as both a shimmering fantasy and a subtropical dystopia, marked as much by deep political division as by the effects of the climate crisis. FloodZone is an extensive photographic project that explores the environmental change in America’s coastal cities. In the process, her works recount colorful emptiness, bombastic materialism, and cultural artificiality to reveal nothing less than existential threats and bleakness.

Olaf Metzel’s expansive sculptures combine formal aesthetic questions with social observations from the present. The artist became known for sensational works in public space. With an eye for current socio-political issues and a focus on the complexity of German history and culture, these not infrequently led to controversial discussions. In addition to these monumental public works, Metzel has created a diverse sculptural oeuvre, including folding, crumpling, compressing, and bending aluminum plates imprinted with words and images. The deformation and destruction serve him here both as an artistic means and as an aesthetic provocation.

Anastasia Samoylova, Church Miami (from the Floridas series), 2020

Anastasia Samoylova
Rusted Car (from the Floridas series), 2020
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova
Rust, Hollywood (from the Floridas series), 2019
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova
Efflorescence (from the Floridas series), 2019
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Olaf Metzel
Interieur , 2021
Aluminium, stainless steel, digital print, shell limestone and wooden plinth
120 x 50 x 50 cm (sculpture), 80 x 25 x 27 cm (wooden plinth)

Olaf Metzel
Bluesmusiker, 2022
Aluminium, stainless steel, digital print
240 x 155 x 45 cm

Olaf Metzel, Bluesmusiker, 2022 (detail)

Anastasia Samoylova
Florida Furniture, Miami (from the Floridas series), 2019
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm

Anastasia Samoylova
Chain Link Fence, Miami (from the Floridas series), 2019
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm

Anastasia Samoylova
Construction in South Beach III (from the FlodZone series), 2019
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm

Anastasia Samoylova, The Pink House, Miami (from the Floridas series), 2020

Olaf Metzel
Lina Bo Bardi, 2019
Aluminum, digital print, stainless steel
145 x 155 x 9 cm

Olaf Metzel, Rothschild Blvd, 2016 (detail)

Olaf Metzel
Rothschild Blvd, 2019
Aluminum, stainless steel, digital print, marble plinth
133 x 140 x 39 cm

Olaf Metzel
Technion Haifa (1), 2018
Aluminum, stainless steel, digital print
110 x 138 x 25 cm

Anastasia Samoylova
Crabbing, Georgia (from the FloodZone series), 2018
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova
Flamingo (from the FloodZone series), 2018
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova
Barber Shop (from the FloodZone series), 2018
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova
Park Avenue (from the FloodZone series), 2018
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova, Beachgoer, Naples (from the Floridas series), 2021

Olaf Metzel
Flagge, 2014
Aluminum, stainless steel, digital print
115 x 125 x 33 cm

Olaf Metzel
Südstaaten, 2018
Aluminum, stainless steel, digital print
88 x 75 x 36 cm

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    Aluminum, stainless steel, digital print
    80 x 62 x 15 cm
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Olaf Metzel
Avalanche (Straight razor)", , 2015
Aluminum, stainless steel, digital print
80 x 62 x 15 cm

Olaf Metzel
Bari, 2021
Aluminium, stainless steel, digital print
90 x 130 x 35 cm

Anastasia Samoylova
Beached Boat , 2019
Archival pigment print, mounted, framed
100 x 80 cm, Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Anastasia Samoylova (*1984) is an American artist whose artistic practice moves between documentary photography and studio work, exploring concepts such as environmental protection, consumer behavior, and the picturesque.

Currently, the artist has two institutional solo exhibitions: “Floridas” at C/O Berlin (until May 4th) and “Image Cities” at KBr Fundación MAPFRE in Barcelona (until May 14th). The exhibition will then travel to Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid. Most recently, the artist had solo exhibitions at the Eastman Museum, Rochester, US | Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, US | The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK | Kunst Haus Wien, AT | History Miami Museum, Miami, US | Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Locle, CH.

In 2021, Samoylova received the first KBr Photo Award from Fundación MAPFRE and was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2022. Her works are included in collections such as Pérez Art Museum, Miami, US | George Eastman Museum, New York, US | The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, US | Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle, CH | Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, US | Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, DE | Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, DE.

Her published monographs include Image Cities (Fundación MAPFRE/Hatje Cantz, 2023), Floridas (Steidl, 2022), and FloodZone (Steidl, 2019).

Olaf Metzel (*1952, Berlin) lives and works in Munich. He has had numerous international institutional solo exhibitions and was also a participant in documenta 8, Kassel (1987), the Skulptur Projekte Münster (1987 and 1997); Sydney Biennale (1990); Istanbul Biennale (1995 and 2017), and the Sao Paulo Biennale (2002). Sculptures in public spaces can be found in Germany, Europe, and Asia.

His works are part of the collections of the Bavarian State Painting Collection, Munich, DE | North Rhine-Westphalia Art Collection, Düsseldorf, DE | Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, DE | Museum Ludwig, Cologne, DE | Hamburger Kunsthalle, DE | Deutsche Bank Collection, Frankfurt and Berlin, DE | Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg, DE | Hollweg Collection, Bremen, DE | Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, DE | Ackermans Collection, Düsseldorf, DE | René Block Collection, Berlin, DE | Collection for Contemporary Art of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, DE | Böckmann Collection, Berlin, DE | Munich Re Art Collection, Munich, DE | ZKM Karlsruhe, DE | Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT | Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Miami, US, and others.