Belgian artist Jan Fabre has been invited to The Hermitage museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, for a monumental, one-man exhibition in September 2016.
MIAMI BEACH – At the SCOPE International Contemporary Art Show in Miami Beach this week, Jan Fabre had several works being exhibited by MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art gallery based in Vienna, Austria. Positioned near the main entrance, Fabre’s colorful and macabre pieces caught the eye of most visitors to the show.
Skull with magpie 2001 Jan Fabre
His works using animal parts, such as Skull with magpie, include jewel-beetle wing cases and stuffed, dead animals. While they may provide some challenging visual images for inquisitive collectors, their iridescent attraction is undeniable.
MAM’s Judith Radlegger was among the gallery’s representatives at SCOPE, answering a virtually non-stop flow of questions from interested art lovers. But one of the most interesting tidbits she revealed was the recent announcement that Jan Fabre will have a massive exhibition at the Russian State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in 2016.
Fabre will be the first living artist to have such an exhibition at the historic venue, which is happening at the invitation of Hermitage Director, Mikhail Piotrovsky. It will be curated by Dimitri Ozerkov, who recently was in charge of the renovation and grand opening of their new contemporary art wing. Fabre’s installation will take up to 30 rooms in multiple buildings and is sure to make headlines and draw the attention of the international art world, as did a previous installation at the Belgian Royal Palace in 2002. The palace’s Mirror Room and chandelier were covered with the wings of more than one million beetles.
Heaven of Delight (seen from below) 2002 Jan Fabre
At SCOPE Miami 2014, Fabre’s colorful pieces were also drawing attention, and many visitors stepped up close to the work to get a better look at the intricate beetle wings used to make the pieces. Encased behind glass, King Leopold II in the Air (from the series Hieronymus Bosch in Congo) utilized thousands of the tiny wings mounted on wood in the form of a crown.
Detail from King Leopold II in the Air (from the series Hieronymus Bosch in Congo) 2012 Jan Fabre
Skull with rabbit 2014 Jan Fabre
SCOPE runs through Sunday December 7th, but if you couldn’t make it to Miami this year, and you won’t be heading to Russia in 2016, you can catch one of his many other international exhibitions. Check out his currently running shows via his website here: http://janfabre.be/angelos/en/running/
==================================================
ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS BY LANCE ARAM ROTHSTEIN
lance aram rothstein
Labeauratoire Blog 
December 8th, 2014 at 6:22 pm
[…] MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art gallery based in, Austria, attracted visitors with work by acclaimed Belgian artist Jan Fabre (above). His pieces using Thai Jewel Beetle wing casings and other animal parts were a certain draw. Fabre has recently been invited to make a massive installation at the Russian State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in 2016. You can read more in our report here. […]