Notice: Function WP_Object_Cache::add was called incorrectly. Cache key must not be an empty string. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.1.0.) in /www/artspiel_344/public/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131

Natale Adgnot: What We Are Really Seeing

A person sitting at a desk

Description automatically generated
Portrait of Natale Adgnot in the studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.

What does Cognitive Bias and Fallacy Look Like? Natale Adgnot’s Work Tests What We Are Really Seeing. Natale Adgnot’s work explores the power of psychology and the impact that cognitive bias has on our everyday life, routines and choices. Her work incorporates patterns and systems to explore different cognitive biases such as stereotyping and pareidolia (seeing patterns in random information) to reflect on the elusiveness of truth. Best known for wall sculptures made of painted thermoplastic adhered perpendicularly onto birch panels, she challenges the viewer to consider her work from multiple perspectives. Her new series, Bird Brains, continues to delve into her exploration of bias and fallacy. Bird Brains matches entries in the cognitive bias codex with the birds that best exemplify them. From black swan theory to the duck test to the proverbial canary in the coal mine, she taps into this rich language to point out the stunning variety and sheer magnitude of ways we humans misconstrue the world.

Continue reading “Natale Adgnot: What We Are Really Seeing”

Artists on Coping: Iris Häussler

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Iris Häussler. Studio-shot by Brian Lynn, 2018

Iris Häussler studied conceptual art and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany, and lives and works in Toronto, Canada. She is known internationally for her unsettling, immersive installations that she creates around her fictitious characters and constructs them in situ in collaboration with museums, art institutions and galleries. Recent projects & exhibitions include: Apartment 5 at Platform, Armory Show (2019), New York USA; Apartment 4. John Michael Kohler Arts Center & Chipstone Foundation, Wisconsin, USA, (2018/19); The Sophie La Rosière Project @: PSM Gallery Berlin (2019), Daniel Faria Gallery (2017), Scrap Metal Gallery (2016), Art Gallery of York University (2016), Toronto, Canada; He Dreamed Overtime in the 18th Sydney Biennale in Australia (2012). Awards include the Karl-Hofer Prize (Berlin), the Kunstfonds Fellowship (Bonn) and the Canada Council for the Arts. Häussler is represented by: Daniel Faria Gallery & PSM Gallery

Continue reading “Artists on Coping: Iris Häussler”

Iris Häussler – Invented Biographies

Iris Häussler, Apartment 5

Throughout her multi-faceted installations, the German-born Canadian based artist Iris Häussler has been slipping in and out of multiple characters. Her invented underdog protagonists live through diverse historical periods and traverse vast geographies. Häussler’s rigorous installations transform any categorization. They are placed between life and art, coalescing multi-disciplinary collaborations including performance, literature, and richly layered visual vocabularies such as drawing, installation and sculpture. The visitor is invited to experience an individual’s life within a specific context of place and history, to decipher the clues from the artifacts and materials throughout installations that reflect on fiction, history and the meaning of a creative identity.

Continue reading “Iris Häussler – Invented Biographies”