ICI Conversations are thought-provoking events that give you exclusive access to the peopleartists, curators, critics, collectors, and museum directorswho influence contemporary art today, while bringing you an insider’s perspective on ICI, your access point to contemporary art around the world. For the first of our fall ICI CONVERSATIONS, ICI hosted an artist talk and light bunch with Berlin-based artist Helene Appel at James Cohan Gallery. In conversation with ICI Executive Director, Renaud Proch, Appel provided thought-provoking insight into her creative process during an exclusive tour of her first solo exhibition in New York. Through her delicate and illusionistic paintings, Helene Appel conveys the fragility of everyday life and questions any sense of certainty we might have for what is represented. Her canvas becomes part of her graceful brushstrokes as she opens up layers of visual renderings. She is one of a generation of painters who explore the different possibilities offered by the medium to displace reality, to undermine any attempts at faithful representation Born in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1976, Appel studied in Hamburg, and received her MA from the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has been seen in group exhibitions in New York at Wallspace (2011) and James Cohan Gallery (2012); last year, her paintings at Frieze New York caught Roberta Smiths eye, and made the critics short list of attention-worthy art.
