Hugo Markl

Hugo Markl (born December 6, 1964, in Pasadena, California) is a contemporary American artist, curator, and creative director. He studied Visual communication at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (1985–90) where he graduated with an M.A. in fine arts. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, video, drawing, printmaking, installation art, and performance. Markl lives in New York City.

Work
"I imitate popular art that will not become popular art". With these words Hugo Markl has described his art, which feeds on the media imagery of consumer society, newspapers and porn websites, fashion magazines such as Vogue, logos of multinational corporations like FedEx, and even traffic signs, or objects charged with cultural and social connotations, such as the famous Winchester rifle. Markl deconstructs these symbols, or rather the relationship between the images and their referent, through collages, drawings, sculptures and installations that create a typical estrangement effect, creating a vision that looks both familiar and unknown. The artist sometimes combines references to low or vulgar culture with highbrow culture, as in the case of the IQ drawing series (2009), where the sign 'ROCK' is overlaid on the naked body of a woman, as a homage to conceptual artist Dan Graham-or the sign 'IKEA' is silhouetted against the reproduction of a famous edition of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, the Bible for critics of consumer society and mass culture.

His work was widely reviewed by major international press outlets such as Art in America or the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In his exhibition "Peter Builts" in 1997 at Galerie Walcheturm in Zurich he explored thoroughly and precisely the different facets of audio-visual impulses and how they influence contemporary body and mind. His work was compared to Richard Serra's minimal opulence as well as to Richard Prince's aesthetics, which cross the visual signs of everyday life with the insignia of art. This intersection of everyday life, pop culture, criticism and art is the base of his continuous exploration of aesthetic experience and the meaning of artistic creation nowadays.

In principle, he does not participate in-group exhibitions. However, Markl’s works are shown in-group exhibitions. For example, private art collectors lend their art to famous curators to organize public group exhibitions.

Exhibitions
Markl's installations and sculptures have been exhibited in some solo exhibitions and some group exhibitions worldwide. Selected exhibitions and projects:

Solo exhibitions
1999 - Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, THE BIRTH OF peter builts AND THE DEATH OF hugo markl BECAUSE I NO LONGER AM I AM EVERYBODY I AM EVERYTHING, Zurich
 * 2014 - La Gioia, Maison Particulière - Art Center, Brussels
 * 2012 - DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, SSSSS, Berlin
 * 2010 - Galerie Eva Presenhuber, "One day 1917, while his director was out sick with a hangover, John Ford made his first feature. ...", Zürich
 * 2009 - AMP Gallery, DR FRANKENSTEIN, Athens
 * 2008 - Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Link, Zürich
 * 2007 - Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, MAMATSCHI, Naples
 * 2006 - Galerie Eva Presenhuber, BROWN, Zurich        - Galleria Raucci / Santamaria, SHRUG, Naples         - André Schlechtriem Temporary, CALCIUM, New York
 * 2003 - Gruppe Öesterreichische Guggenheim, PETER BUILTS OFFENE RECHNUNG, Vienna
 * 1998 - Galerie am Andechshof, Hugo Markl & Paloma / Installativ und Konzert, Innsbruck
 * 1997 - Galerie Walcheturm, Intolerance, Zurich        - Liste 97 the young art fair, Basel         - Galerie Walcheturm, Peter Builts, Zurich
 * 1996 - Austrian Institute, NOSTALHU, London
 * 1995 - ACME studios for the artists, superapologize 60 min., (major support by the Austrian institute, London), London
 * 1994 - Galerie Walcheturm, Hugo Markl, Gudrun Enslin, Zurich        - Centre d' Art Contemporain, PASSAT, Martigny
 * 1992 - Galerie Walcheturm, Hugo Markl, Zurich
 * 1991 - Shedhalle, Manum de tabula, Zurich
 * 1989 - Pinx Galerie, SHIRT, Vienna
 * 1987 - Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Kieltrunk, Vienna

Group exhibitions

 * 2016 - They printed it!, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich
 * 2014 - La Gioia, Maison Particulière - Art Center, Brussels
 * 2012 - Un‘espressione geografica, Curated by Francesco Bonami, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
 * 2010 | 2011 - PLUS ULTRA, Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection. Curator Francesco Bonami, MACRO Testaccio, Museo D'Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
 * 2010 - Haus für Kunst Uri, Edition 5, Erstfeld, Switzerland
 * 2009 - Hamburger Bahnhof + Flick Collection, DIE KUNST IST SUPER!, Berlin         - Galerie Patrick Seguin invites Galerie Eva Presenhuber, We Are Sun-kissed and Snow-blind, Paris         - Burger Collection, CONFLICTING TALES, Berlin
 * 2008 - Gladstone Gallery, No Information Available, curated by Francesco Bonami, Brussels        - Porta di Sant' Agostino, Stultifera Navis, curated by A. Bruciati and M. Tagliafierro, Bergamo, Italy
 * 2007 - Yvon Lambert Gallery, Mario Testino‚ At Home, a selection of works chosen and installed by Mario Testino', New York        - House Eva Presenhuber, Jubilee Exhibition, Vnà, Switzerland         - Palais de Tokyo, The Third Mind, curated by Ugo Rondinone, Paris
 * 2005 - Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, INTERSTATE, (curator Adam McEwen), New York
 * 2004 - Gruppe Öesterreichische Guggenheim, Kunstverein, ALICE LAENG ZBINDEN und MAX MUSCHER-FÜR GELD MACHEN SIE ALLES, Vienna
 * 2003 - Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck        - Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, BREATHING THE WATER, (curator Ugo Rondinone), Zurich         - Gruppe Öesterreichische Guggenheim, Kunstverein, GLÜHWEIN + KESCHTN – Lavuapappn, Vienna
 * 2000 - Sammlung Hauser und Wirth, The Oldest Possible Memory, Lokremise, St. Gallen
 * 1998 - Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, 20 Haus, Die Sammlung, Vienna
 * 1996 - Artothek im Parlamentsgebäude, Ausstellung 96, (curator Notburga Coronabless), Vienna        - Kunsthaus Zürich, Wunderkammer Öesterreich, (curator Harald Szeemann), Zurich         - MAK – Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Austria im Rosennetz, (curator Harald Szeemann), Vienna         - Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, Coming up, Vienna         - Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck
 * 1995 - Fondazione Querini, Lokalzeit – Wiener Material im Spiegel des Unbehagens, (curator Peter Weibel), Venice        - Karin Kilimnik, Galerie Walcheturm, window display by Hugo Markl, no face entertainment row, Zurich         - ACME studios for the artists, superapologize 60 min., (major support by the Austrian institute, London), London
 * 1994 - Galerie Walcheturm, Eine Galerie stellt sich vor, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck         - Museum und Galerie Moderner Kunst Laibach, Lokalzeit – Wiener Material im Spiegel des Unbehagens, (curator Peter Weibel), Laibach / SLO         - Kunstraum Strohal, Lokalzeit – Wiener Material im Spiegel des Unbehagens, (curator Peter Weibel), Vienna         - Galerie im Taxispalais, Art Tirol, (curator Magdalena Hörmann), Innsbruck         - Galerie Walcheturm, Passing Through, group show, (curator Ugo Rondinone), Zurich
 * 1993 - Centre d' Art Contemporain Martigny, (curator Stefano Germini), Martigny
 * 1991 - Shedhalle, Manum de tabula, Zurich        - Men, Group Show, Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich         - Shedhalle, STILLSTAND switches, Zurich
 * 1990 - Group Show, Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich          - Galerie Zeitkunst, Aus der Nähe. Aus der Ferne., Innsbruck
 * 1989 - Secession, Junge Szene Wien, Vienna        - Öesterreichisches Museum des 21. Jahrhunderts, (curator Oswald Oberhuber), Vienna
 * 1988 - Galerie Grita Insam, Akte der Beschreibung, (curator Helmut Draxler), Vienna        - Galerie Zeitkunst, Innsbruck         -Galerie Knoll, Drucke, Vienna

Private collections

 * Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
 * Burger Collection, Hong Kong, China
 * Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
 * MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria
 * Pomeranz Collection, Vienna, Austria
 * Andreas Züst († 2000) Collection, Switzerland
 * Joel Wachs, President of the Andy Warhol Foundation, New York, N.Y.
 * Shane Akeroyd, Executive Vice President at Markit, London, U.K.
 * Claude Berri († 2009), Paris, France
 * Sofia Coppola, New York, N.Y., and Paris, France
 * Urs Fischer, New York, N.Y.
 * Ugo Rondinone, New York, N.Y.
 * Mario Testino Art Projects at Home, Paris, France, and New York, N.Y.
 * David Teiger († 2014), New York, N.Y.
 * Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland
 * Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Switzerland

Public collections

 * Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
 * Hampshire College Art Gallery
 * Historic Deerfield
 * Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
 * The Joseph Allen Skinner Museum at Mount Holyoke College
 * Smith College Museum of Art
 * University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMASS Amherst

Art market
Markl was represented by Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich; Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, Zurich; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, Naples; André Schlechtriem Contemporary, New York; AMP Gallery, Athens. He's currently represented by DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin.

Personal life
Markl has two daughters: Adah and Hannah. For a period in the 2010s, Markl gave up business to be a stay-at-home dad to his children.

Between 2006 and 2008, Markl made approximately $12 million, solely from income as an advertising consultant for [MNCs] multinational corporations.

Markl's business relationship with three galleries ended abruptly in 2010, he says, the main reason for the mutual break off of the relations was the imbalance of power in these relationships (In reference to the last global financial crisis of 2008–2012).