Yulia Mahr, the acclaimed Hungarian-born British visual artist, is pleased to present "Unbecoming" - a new and unseen lens-based works and installation curated by Margot Mottaz, open now and available to view until 26 May 2024 at Wehrmuehle, Berlin.
Marking a significant change of direction in Mahr's artistic journey, Unbecoming delves into the intricacies of human existence, exploring themes of birth, death and transfiguration. A study of the beautiful and the 'unsightly' as inseparable facets of the human condition, the exhibition directs a raw lens onto the interplay of life.
We chase the positive, live in the forever young. We seek permanence with a pursuit of a glassy and glossy perfection. We are indeed trained to find beauty within that model alone and to be repulsed by anything outside of it. And so we miss everything. The whole beautiful cascade of interconnections and cycles, impermanence. But it is here where true meaning resides.
Yulia Mahr
Through layered and repeated figuration, scarred bodies, decaying matter, and lifeless animals contrast with moments of birth and life. Presenting a body of work that carries a nuanced touch of tenderness and vulnerability, each image is intentionally presented outside of 'time'. Speaking concurrently of personal stories like the artist's own journey through childbirth and the passage of a close friend into middle age, Unbecoming dives into narratives that resound universally, underpined by the rhythmic ebbs and flows of the natural world.