For Various Others 2020 SANDY BROWN is pleased to present a selection of works by Rosa Panaro and Alex Vivian in the upper gallery at DEBORAH SCHAMONI in Munich.


Rosa Panaro (b.1934, Italy) works with materials such as concrete, papier-mâché, clay, and resins. By the late fifties, she had begun to manipulate the techniques learned from her maestro, the sculptor Antonio Venditti, and deviate from post-war abstractionism to find a more whimsical treatment of material and form. Panaro’s use of papier-mâché in particular anticipates the emergence of artistic experiments dealing with the art object and commodification – as later became significant to Pop Art and Nouveau Réalisme. In 1977 Panaro began a series of collaborative activities with feminist collectives such as Gruppo XX and Gruppo Donne / Immagine / Creatività, which produced numerous itinerant actions including “Vaso di Pandora” and “Lavoro Nero – Lavoro Creativo”. During these years she also contributed to the subversive magazine Effe. The first international exhibition of sculptural work by Panaro is currently on view at Sandy Brown in Berlin.

Panaro’s work is included in the collections of Museo Davia Bargellini, Palazzo Bargellini, Pieve di Cento, Bologna; Museo MADRE, Naples; Museo del Novecento, Castel Sant ́Elmo, Naples; ARCA, Museo d Árte Religiosa Contemporanea, Naples.

Alex Vivian (b. 1981, Australia) is best-known for sculptures, assemblages and installations of domestic items such as food packaging and rubbish, meat slicers (castration devices), vacuums, and toasters. His objects are modified in a variety of ways: painted, scribbled, stacked, glued, bleached, wrapped, lathered with condiments and general goo, etc. Over the last five years, Vivian has increasingly channeled his energies into picture-making. Recent paintings depict a supermarket brand lubricant logo; another series describes a 'Cobalt blue pecking order, or conceptual gradient of social aids, in the form of Animal by-product: butter, margarine, table spread. Duck fat reigns supreme over Lard, as does dripping to plate grease’.

Select solo exhibitions include Guzzler, Melbourne; Monash University, Melbourne; Sandy Brown, Berlin; Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne; Craft Victoria, Melbourne; Gambia Castle, Auckland. Select group exhibitions include Neon Parc, Melbourne; Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland; Bodega, Philadelphia.