Opening: Friday, 2019, September 27 from 7 to 9 pm

Thomas Mann war ein Mann. Margarete Hahner nicht wirklich. But this is not the place to discuss gender issues. That place would be the bathroom.

This collection of new work from Hahner is a continuation of themes explored by her over the years. Die Bruder Grimm cast their long shadows from paradise, sylph-like figures nurse in udder resignation as a severed digit points to a different reality, die Hausfrauen go about their work with steadfast determination, ghost figures conjure the spirit world and the solace of religion is largely intestinal. Yes, there is a new kind of fruit, which appears in the market outside the post-serpent Garden of Eden. Then again those might be polyps.

This collection of new work from Hahner is a continuation of themes explored by her over the years. Die Bruder Grimm cast their long shadows from paradise, sylph-like figures nurse in udder resignation as a severed digit points to a different reality, die Hausfrauen go about their work with steadfast determination, ghost figures conjure the spirit world and the solace of religion is largely intestinal. Yes, there is a new kind of fruit, which appears in the market outside the post-serpent Garden of Eden. Then again those might be polyps.

As to the organizing principal behind this work?

Hahner lives in Los Angeles. She savors the intense light of Southern California. It illuminates the dark corners in her work, while at the same time providing the ongoing distraction of mosquitoes. But the work itself is more reflective of her time in her hometown of Bamberg, Germany. Bamberg is festooned with churches and religious iconography. Breweries in this most Catholic of areas frequently display crucifixes. The plethora of religious imagery and accompanying Catholic canon were branded into the Hahner DNA at childhood.

Hahner’s work, like so much in Catholicism, is presented with the requisite that it be accepted as a matter of faith. In other words, we are not meant to understand everything we see; yet we should accept it based on its sacred presentation. It comes from somewhere out there. Its value is in its uncertainty. Perhaps, but maybe not. But then again…