Bling Bling Baby!

Glitter, Glamour and a flirt with pop

From the 19^th of November 2016 to the 15^th of January 2017, the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf will present the exhibition “Bling Bling Baby”, a show of photographic voices that are not scared of kitsch.

New trends in photography: the exhibition “Bling Bling Baby” will present the new, colourful world of photography. From Glam Fashion to nature poems, from the ironic representation to pop portraits – the past few years have seen the emergence of a fascinating canon of images which celebrate the artificial and do not shy away from kitsch. The international group exhibition that includes stars such as David LaChapelle and Pierre et Gilles will be on show at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf from the 19th of November 2016 until the 15th of January 2017.

Be it roaring stags, alpenglow lights or sunsets – exaggeration has remained a popular form of artistic expression ever since the Romantic period. The glorification of the trivial and of sentimental exuberance has led to a particular visual vocabulary within photography. Guy Bourdin was the first to use dazzling colours and bizarre settings for his fashion shoots. David LaChapelle, Miles Aldridge and Pierre et Gilles successfully continued this flirt with pop. Subsequently we can identify a younger generation of artists who are employing their fantasy and the power of colours to explore the limits of this medium: the Dutch Ruud van Empel who places ideal figures in front of heavenly backgrounds, the Moroccan Hassan Hajjaj who supplements pattern-mix hipster portraits with found objects á la Warhol, the English Jason McGlade, who arranges humans, flowers and animals on a glass scanner, the duo Christto & Andrew from Doha who design entire wall worlds with their bizarre motifs – or the Swedish couple Inka & Niclas whose kitschy rock art also includes the frame.

The exhibition project “Bling Bling Baby” is curated by Nadine Barth and combines the most interesting new approaches from the field of photography, it introduces new and familiar names and carries us off to a sweet, surreal, glittering and incredibly fresh cosmos. Participating are, amongst others: Anatol Kotte, Bela Borsodi, Carolin Saage, Christto & Andrew, Daniel Sannwald, David Drebin, David LaChapelle, Esther Haase, Hassan Hajjaj, Inka & Niclas, Izima Kaoru, Jason McGlade, Kourtney Roy, Mark Kimber, Markus Henttonen, Mariano Vivanco, Martin Schoeller, Matt Henry, Maxime Ballesteros, Mike Schreiber, Miles Aldridge, Mi-Zo, Olivo Barbieri, Pierre et Gilles, Pierre Winther, Polixeni Papapetrou, Rankin, Ruud van Empel, Sarah Illenberger, Sarah Malakoff, Stefano Cerio Suresh Nataraja and Wing Shya.

Nadine Barth is a curator and publicist. She studied philosophy, literature and art history in Hamburg and worked for many years as a journalist and gallery owner. In 2006 she founded barthouse culture concepts, her agency for art and communication. She has edited a number of publications on photography and fashion and curated exhibitions, amongst others, for the Deichtorhallen Hamburg ("Traumfrauen" und "Traummänner"), the MAMM in Moscow, for Puma in Singapore and the Foreign Office in Berlin. Since 2013 she is Consulting Editor for photography books at Hatje Cantz. She lives in Berlin.

Images

It is permissible to use at no charge the pictorial material listed here for topic-oriented reporting (in print- and online-media as well as via social-media channels) and with inclusion of the indicated photo credit. The exemption from utilization fees expires six weeks after the end of the exhibition. In the case of an article or reprint, we would be pleased to receive a copy at presse@nrw-forum.de or NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Pressestelle, Ehrenhof 2, 40479 Düsseldorf. Thank you.