Daniel Spoerri's Retrospective at MOCAK Explores Kitsch and Banality

MOCAK in Kraków presents 'Daniel Spoerri – Art Taken Out of the Ordinary', a retrospective of the Swiss-born artist (b. 1930, Galați). The exhibition includes both his acclaimed 'tableau piège' (snare-pictures) and lesser works made for small collectors, which the critic labels 'bad cholesterol'. Spoerri's recent series 'A Faded Oracle' (2014) reworks moralizing embroideries from Biedermeier-era German and Austrian kitchens into new linguistic games. In 'Background Landscape' (1998), he embellished paintings by obscure German landscapist Erich Bamler with old shoes and bric-a-brac. The series 'What Remains!' (2015) features entire flea market purchases from Vienna, glued onto walls as tableau piège. MOCAK director Maria Anna Potocka acquired a Spoerri work for the museum's collection, a strategy also used with Julian Opie and Charlotte Beaudry, whose works dialogue with the banalist painting of local artists from the former Grupa Ladnie collective (Rafal Bujnowski, Marcin Maciejowski, Wilhelm Sasnal). The exhibition runs until April 2, 2017.