Gallery Reinhard Hauff is pleased to announce „Outside-In“ – the second solo-exhibition by the New York artist Oona Stern (*1964) who first showed at the gallery in 1999.

Oona Stern works on the complex relationship between the apparent surface and consistence of various materials and their artistic representation.
In a conscious effort to create optical delusion, the artist manages to unsettle our pre-conditioned perception of materials, their feel and function by simulating simple building and construction site materials such as brick or wood.

In content and form all the works on view draw on the theme of gardens and plants, translated into Stern´s peculiar and very original vocabulary: rectangular forms in materials such as plasterboard or carpeting represent brick, round forms represent stones and plastic hedges create the illusion of garden greens.

For the show, Stern has created both large scale installations and smaller size works on paper, in addtion to sculptures and objects. Adapting the position of each work within the show to its specific architectural situation, Stern places drawings and sculptures on the exact spot where that which the works imitate is located. This super-imposition between real and counterfeit challenges the viewer to confront his /her own perception of object and concept.

Along both sides of an entire free standing wall in the large exhibition room run large-size drawings representing in an abstract manner a close-up of a green hedge. A three-dimensional pendant to these hedge wall compositions is the sculpture „Model for Dreamy“, originally created for the Toronto Sculpture Garden. In it, building bricks held together by motar and cement have been replaced by green plastic bushes to create a hedge which is shaped like a massive brick wall. „Pavers“ are two large objects on floors and walls using carpets cut in the shape of cement pavement stones and inserted into floors and walls to fluch with their surfacesin a continuous dialogue between painted and constructed.