Nuclear War: What’s in it for you? 

Curated by Will Benedict 

The exhibition Nuclear War: What’s in it for you? is organised as a mis-en-scenes reflective of the differing political and aesthetic positions taken in the seventies and eighties and leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall. Work by KP Brehmer and Ludmila Seefried-Matejkova who were active in West Berlin during that time period are presented along side Suzy Lake’s Boundaries series from 1985 and which were made in reaction to her disillusionment with the social activism she was involved in while working with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Finally a Gaylen Gerber installation which includes a work by Will Benedict leads us out into a brave new world of night clubbing.

Gaylen Gerber (1955, US) His projects have been exhibited at Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; FRAC-Bourgogne, Dijon, France; Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Germany; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Art Institute of Chicago; Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago.

KP Brehmer (1938, Germany – 1997, Germany) His work have been exhibited at Documenta 5 and 6; MoMA, New York; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 1998: Kunsthalle Museum Fridericianum presented a comprehensive posthumous retrospective. 2011: CAAC in Seville presented KP Brehmer: A TestExtending beyond the Action. 2013: La Biennale di Venezia – 55th International Art Exhibition Art Turning Left, Tate Liverpool. 2014. He will have a solo exhibition at Raven Row, London in October 2014 and will be included in an exhibition at Bolzano Museion, curated by Pierre Bal-Blanc also in October 2014.

Ludmila Seefried-Matějková (1938, Czech Republic) From 1984 to 1985 she was commissioned by the city of Berlin to design 7 public sculptures. Polizeimaschine, Polize – Direktion in Berlin Spaldau. In 1992 she had an exhibition in the Old Town Hall, Brno organised by the Brno House of the Arts, in the Mánes gallery, Prague and in Mariánské Lázně. A large retrospective took place in the Art Centre of Palack. University, Olomouc in 2003, followed by exhibitions in the Museum of Moravian Slovakia in Uher- ské Hradiště, the Diocese Museum in Plzeň, and a show in the Czech Centre, Prague in 2011, where her artworks were displayed alongside Zuzana Richter’s photographs. Her work has appeared at group and solo exhibitions in Germany, Austria, Italy, Great Britain, Poland and Denmark.

Nicolas Ceccaldi (1983, Canada) currently has a solo exhibition at Munich Kunstverein and his recent solo exhibitions include Prepare to Live, Johan Berggren Gallery, Malmö (2011); Fashions in the Middle Ages, Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt am Main (2010). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions include based in Berlin, Kunst-Werke, Berlin (2011); Venus in a Shell, Fluxia Gallery, Milan (2011); Join the Black Mamba, Karma International, Zurich (2011); Tarot, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2011); The Smart Frrridge, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz (2011).

Suzy Lake (1947, United States) Lake was the subject of a major mid-career retrospective organised by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in 1993, and was one of 119 women in the historical show WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution 1965-1980. Lake was also in Identity Theft: Eleanor Antin, Lynn Hershmann and Suzy Lake 1972-1978 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 2007. Lake is represented by Georgia Scherman Projects in Toronto and will be opening a full career retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario, November 2014.

For further information or images please contact Martin Rasmussen: +44 (0)20 7729 9888 or: martin@vilmagold.com