Carsten Höller

Gagosian is pleased to announce Halves, an exhibition of Divisions paintings and sculptures by Carsten Höller, opening on August 29.

With a background as a research biologist, Höller often introduces the subjects and methods of science while incorporating aspects of illogic and unfamiliarity to establish a “Laboratory of Doubt.” Encouraging curiosity, sensory experience, and the reconsideration of assumptions, his works playfully throw rationality itself into question.

The Divisions works investigate division as a generative principle. To create the paintings, Höller repeatedly divides canvases into halves, with lines or sequences of desaturated tints. To compose the neon works, he bisects circles with lines, which in turn determine the centers of other circles in varied sizes, forming complex geometric configurations.

In other works, biological models or taxidermy are mounted over Divisions paintings that are encased in vitrines, establishing a contrast between organic specimens and mathematical forms. The sculpture Double Mushroom Vitrine (Twice) (2021) applies a related strategy of conceptual division, joining halved segments of different mushroom species at life size.