Olaf Breuning : Clouds

Olaf Breuning’s installation Clouds towers nearly 35 feet above Doris C. Freedman Plaza. Held aloft among the trees of Central Park by rudimentary steel supports, the six bright blue clouds are made of polished and painted aluminum and were cut to match a hand drawing by the artist. Calling to mind the set design of a school play or childlike drawings of the sky, the idea for this work is inspired by one of the artist’s staged photographs. For this earlier work, Breuning used cranes and cherry pickers to raise large blue drawings of clouds high in the air, creating a momentary scene to be captured by the camera.

Interested in situations that bend reality to the whims of his imagination, Breuning uses film, sculpture, drawing, and photography to propel viewers into a world that borders on the surreal and underscores the humor of everyday life. Clouds dramatically transforms the skyline of the park into a playful fictional tableau, inviting us to experience the stagelike quality of a New York City street with a new sense of wonder and possibility.

Olaf Breuning: Clouds is curated by Andria Hickey.

Olaf Breuning (b. 1970, Schaffhausen, Switzerland) lives and works in New York. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland (2013); Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, New York (2012); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2010); Migros Musuem für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2007); Centre d’Art Contemporain Georges Pompidou, Paris (2006); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2005); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2004); and Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, France (2003). Breuning’s work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions such as The Circus as a Parallel Universe, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012); Liverpool Biennial, England (2012); 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Whitney Biennial 2008, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; Looking at Music, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Destroy Athens, 1st Athens Bienniale, Athens, Greece (2007); All About Laughter, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2005); and Let’s Entertain, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2000). Breuning is represented by Metro Pictures in New York.