Ser Serpas's 'Of my life' at Kunsthalle Basel
Ser Serpas's solo exhibition 'Of my life' at Kunsthalle Basel (through 21 September 2025) features 20 untitled paintings on unstretched canvas, created by pressing one canvas over a freshly painted one to produce reversed, smeared images of hazily faceless human bodies. The show also includes three restagings of 1990s performances by the Georgian group Margo Korableva Performance Theatre (MKPT), with degraded video monitors and material props. Serpas met MKPT while living in Georgia. The exhibition deliberately avoids her signature scavenged sculptures, instead juxtaposing her bleak, dissolving figures with MKPT's satirical, convention-subverting antics. The title suggests subjective honesty or analytical objectivity, and the show's 'artlessness' reflects a mood where artists prefer making art outside traditional gallery contexts.
Key facts
- Ser Serpas's solo show 'Of my life' at Kunsthalle Basel runs through 21 September 2025.
- The exhibition features 20 untitled paintings from 2025, made by pressing one canvas over a freshly painted one.
- Paintings depict hazily faceless human bodies, some reclining, lying flat, or seen from above like mortuary shots.
- Three spaces are dedicated to restagings of 1990s performances by Margo Korableva Performance Theatre (MKPT).
- Serpas got to know MKPT while living itinerantly in Georgia.
- Performances include 'Kitchen Drama' (1993/2025) and 'Kali Yuga Hysteria' (1997).
- The show sidesteps the orthodox solo show format and does not include Serpas's typical scavenged sculptures.
- The exhibition's 'artlessness' eschews art technique and history for performed rawness.
Entities
Artists
- Ser Serpas
- David Chikhladze
Institutions
- Kunsthalle Basel
- Margo Korableva Performance Theatre (MKPT)
- ArtReview
Locations
- Basel
- Switzerland
- Georgia