When we are talking about stinging rebukes on social issues revolving around the current status quo and consumerist culture, Sylvie Fleury is the MVP. ‘S.F’ At Sprueth Magers is a retrospective. On Fleury's Art, on gender politics, on Western Art, on Fashion, on world design… on you.
An Immersive manifestation of a lifetime that seamlessly masterfully explores the nexus of modern art in the garments of fashion and tools of consumerism. Through 5 floors of spellbound, Fleury daringly questions the historically male-centric foundations of society through a delicate blend of fascination and detachment, urging us to reassess our perceptions of power within consumer culture. Reflecting the politics of art through contemporary societal behaviours, the show engages on a complex distinctive commentary on when life becomes art interlinking a value system based on perceptions.
Upon entering the gallery space you come across a boutique-like installation with a myriad of different brand shopping bags lying on the floor, challenging the implicit gendered customs and fixations, encouraging audiences to engage in critical reflection about the design of the world. She embraces oppositions and paradoxes to challenge the status of artistic artefacts versus luxury items.
To enter the next room you have to go through a changing room curtain, only to find yourself in a room of a car-racing club. And then you start to connect the dots. Given that the boutique is in the vitrine of the gallery - you are being watched by onlookers - where you retreat through the dressing room only to escape to your own world of ‘unladylike’ hobbies.
Fleury founded her own women-only motoring club; ‘She-Devil on Wheels’, in 1990 after being refused membership to a car-racing club. And the transition from one room to another speaks loudly of a tantalising backdrop of the sentiments, crushing stereotypes on a lingering journey of perception - allowing you to let yourself loose.
And from the messy office setting with the Playgirl, semi naked men, billboards on the side - which you have to admit is quite sexy - again to a minimal, more aggressive ‘superficiality’ on paraphernalia, skillfully subverting the underlying gendered customs and fixations.
Makeup - shoes - chromed commercialism and deflated missiles (wink wink!) in a boutique while you’ve been called an Egoiste. And as you descend into the basement, you unchain yourself and transcend into a mesmerising scenery of gigantic virile science fiction ready to deflower the universe.
The "First Spaceship on Venus", a room full of huge shiny and fluffy rockets adorned with colours and materials traditionally associated with "femininity," deftly to challenge patriarchal underpinnings in the subject of a satirical take on their ‘eternal now’ phallic symbolism.
SF while seems autobiographical it might actually be a mental state. Shopping, glitz, spoiling consumerism which you love criticising but after all you enjoy spoiling yourself with, your sexy unladylike hobbies and the surprise when you descend down under finding huge missiles.
The show beckons the question:
Is it peeking into someone's lifetime or perhaps a timeline of a meeting with a new lover?
Either way this show releases a big hit of endorphins from within.
A testament to the inextricable link between our desires and our perception of art. Fleury renegotiates our boundaries and contemplates how our identities are often shaped by the allure of consumer goods, cultural products and personal intricacies.
‘SF’ is an invitation to confront the complex interplay of our identities unfolding in our contemporary age. A multi floored journey and a collision of worlds birthing a captivating spectacle and an open diary that actually could be yours - or you wish was yours.
The Athens Biennale has announced a major restructuring of its governance alongside the appointment of Thiago de Paula Souza as curator of its 8th edition in 2027. The new model introduces a formalised structure of trustees, advisors, and curatorial leadership, consolidating the Biennale within a tightly interlinked network of cultural patrons, collectors, and institutional stakeholders. While presented as an “evolving ecosystem,” the shift reflects a broader transformation in contemporary art governance, where cultural legitimacy is increasingly shaped through structures aligned with private capital and strategic institutional management. Against this backdrop, de Paula Souza’s curatorial practice—rooted in institutional critique and transnational experimentation—introduces a productive tension between radical discourse and formalised cultural power.
Giusy Amoroso, also known as Marigoldff, winner of the fifth Open Call, constructs speculative ecosystems where biology and industry converge. Working across digital and physical realms, her practice examines how organisms adapt within environments shaped by contamination, technological intervention, and ecological instability. Rooted in her upbringing in Southern Italy’s “Land of Fires,” Amoroso’s work moves beyond narratives of destruction to focus on transformation as a condition of survival. Through hybrid anatomies—where metal, synthetic matter, and organic tissue coexist—she proposes new models of life that are both resilient and dependent. This conversation traces the conceptual, technical, and experiential layers that define her evolving practice.
Danish artist Laust Højgaard explores the tension between strength, vulnerability, and identity through paintings and sculptures populated by symbolic characters and surreal situations. Drawing inspiration from classical mythology, architecture, and contemporary pop culture, his work investigates how individuals navigate societal structures while negotiating their own instincts and inner conflicts. Based on the small island of Thurø near Svendborg in southern Denmark, Højgaard works across painting and sculpture, often combining expressive figuration with raw, intuitive processes. His work frequently reflects on humanity’s relationship with nature, control, and the systems that shape modern life.
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