SANDRO KOPP

Sandro Kopp was born in 1978 in Heidelberg, Germany, of New Zealand and German descent. He started drawing and painting proficiently at a very young age and had his first solo exhibition when he was seven years old, his second when he was fifteen. After graduating Abiltur majoring in Fine Art and English, Kopp moved to New Zealand in 2000. The following three years were spent studying, painting and exhibiting in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, where he lived in the creative collective, The Factory. Having left New Zealand in 2005, the next years where spent nomadically roaming around between Italy, New York, France and the UK. Since 2009 he has been based in the Highlands of Scotland. Kopp has exhibited internationally, most recently at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2007; the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2008; at the Istancool arts festival, Istanbul, Turkey in May 2011 and at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York in January 2012.

PRESS RELEASE

ISTANBUL’74 hosted an exhibition by the German artist Sandro Kopp in conjunction with the Istancool 2011 Festival.

“Being With You” is a series of oil paintings executed in front of the computer during skype-video-conversations with friends and family, who sit for the entire duration of the painting.

The work is an expression of the artists long exploration into balancing the presence captured in live portraiture sittings versus portraits painted from a photograph. It is also an “Offering” to human engagement; the continued existence of warmth and connection within new technologies of communication. “Being With You” hosted by ISTANBUL’74 in are now on thier way to New York. The exhibition will be on view at Lehmann Maupin Gallery onwards 23 JAN. “Being With You” exhibition hosted by ISTANBUL’74 and which will be opening in Lehmann Maupin is another huge step in enhancing the collaboration to foster a cultural exchange between the two cities once again.