Grand Union is delighted to welcome two artists-in-residence for the month of November. Cristobal Gracia is our resident from SOMA (Mexico City), and his time at Grand Union forms the second leg of an exchange that we initiated with them in 2015. In September we sent West Midlands-based artist Andrew Lacon to Mexico City to spend a month in residence there.
Katharina Ludwig responded to an open call open to Berlin-based artists, and was selected in partnership with Birmingham-based artist Joanne Masding.
Cristobal Gracia
Starting from the research and connection of historical events, mixing them with a touch of humor, science fiction, irony and violence Cristobal Gracia´s work challenges the construction of a present built and regulated by ideological and power structures imposed over time.
Biography
Cristobal Gracia (1987) lives and works in Mexico City. He is co-director of Bikini Wax, an independent platform of production, discussion and exhibition of contemporary art in Mexico City. He is a current recipient of the Arte Actual BBVA Bancomer – MACG grant and the Young Creators grant of the National Fund for Culture.
Among his exhibitions we can mention; Vis à Vis, McNichols building, The Biennial of the Americas, Denver, Colorado, USA (2015), Fragments, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, Colorado, USA (2015), Cristobal Gracia at Venice 6114, Los Angeles, California USA (2014), Horror en el trópico, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City (2014), Sector ACMA, arte contemporáneo del mas allá, Centro Cultural Border / Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico city (2014).
Katharina Ludwig
Katharina’s work operates in the space between film, theatre, language, digital culture and artefact. It is informed by investigations into fragmentation of narratives in the digital age and their influence on established hierarchies and binary oppositions, such as absence/presence, control/resistance or flatness/interruption.
Object and writing/text form the main components of her artistic practice. She creates settings in which objects and texts are combined in immersive installations. She sees the objects she creates and the words she use as props: as placeholders suggesting a purpose or activity, yet ambiguous in their presence and escaping a conclusive interpretation. What happens when objects and language are stripped off their usual context and are placed in another environment?
Biography
Katharina Louise Ludwig (b. 1983 Starnberg, Germany) holds a BA from Design Academy Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths University of London (United Kingdom). She lives and works in Berlin (Germany). She exhibits nationally and internationally in various museums and galleries, amongst others at Kunstquartier Bethanien (Germany, 2016), Joint Venture # 3 Zurich (Switzerland, 2016), The Bakery Brooklyn (USA, 2015), Salon Dahlmann (Germany, 2015), Kunstverein Östliches Sauerland (Germany, 2014), Aesthetica Art Prize (United Kingdom, 2014), Museo di Arte Moderna et Contemporanea di Trento et Rovereto (Italy, 2013), Galerie BSL (France, 2013) and the van Abbemuseum (The Netherlands, 2011).
*Cristobal Gracia’s residency is possible with support from the Government of Mexico as part of the Year of Mexico in the UK 2015
*Katharina Ludwig’s residency is possible with support from Arts Council England, and The Lombard Method.