Sonja Yakovleva and Nicholas Grafia Type / Cast / Thrill.

The exhibition Type / Cast / Thrill. takes these processes as a starting point to negotiate and challenge seemingly fixed notions of identity within the expanded cultural field. Staging a dramaturgy consisting of newly produced papercuts and paintings, the exhibition aims to reveal structural biases, power relations and stereotypes often legitimized through the means of historicity. By reconciling fact and fiction and blurring the temporal boundaries between past and presence, the works presented in the exhibition suggest a utopic vision of alternative realities in which dominant categories within the existing canon may be overcome and reconfigured.

Nicholas Grafia (b. 1990 in Angeles City/Philippines) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the Kunstakademie Münster, the School of Arts and Cultures in Newcastle (UK) and the University of Münster. His works have been exhibited a.o. at Capitain Petzel (Berlin), Shoot the Lobster (New York), signs and symbols (New York), Kunsthal Aarhus (Aarhus), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), K21 Museum Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf), fffriedrich (Frankfurt am Main, DE), Kunstraum (London), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf), Dortmunder Kunstverein (Dortmund), PS120 Berlin (Berlin), Exo Exo at David Giroire (Paris), Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw) and BOZAR (Brussels). Grafia lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Sonja Yakovleva (b. 1989 in Potsdam/Germany) graduated from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main in 2016. Her works and performances have been presented a.o. at Robert Grunenberg (Berlin), Timber (Seoul), Kreuzgarten Dom (Stendal), Saasfee Pavillon (Frankfurt am Main), Neuver Kunstverein Giessen (Giessen), Zeller van Almsick (Vienna), European Centre for the Arts, Hellerau (Dresden), and Kampnagel (Hamburg). Yakovleva lives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.