Frieda Toranzo Jaeger

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Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Extinction is the price we pay for our existence, 2023

Frieda Toranzo Jaeger paints under the long shadow of art history, all the while propelling us towards a yet-to-be-determined future. Iconographically rich, her subjects and scenes are often lifted directly from 14th and 15th century European paintings—from bacchanal gatherings to female figures in lush regalia. They repopulate Toranzo Jaeger’s tableaus cloaked in a new embellishment, often literally ornamented with eyelets, jewels, and embroidery deftly woven by the artist’s family, and afforded new possibilities for queer desire, unthwarted by colonial strategies.

Automobiles figure as prominently as spaceships, machinery is embedded into her compositions like engines driving forward her layered narratives. Toranzo Jaeger’s paintings are frequently modular, and her adjoined canvases invite us not simply to look; they beckon our physical entry into dense realms, hinging open and scaled proportionally to our bodies. Winged paintings resemble books or altars—texts necessitating investigative scanning, so that the time of viewing recalls the unhurried pace of making.

In 2021, Toranzo Jaeger was commissioned to occupy the rotunda of the Baltimore Museum of Art. The resultant work The Perpetual Sense of Redness, is an epic polygonic construct wherein each side elaborates a new proposition in world-building. Of this novel form, Toranzo Jaeger says, “I am borrowing pre-Colombian compositions, which are often round and expand from the center. So it is more of a cosmology of different interior worlds, places where we dream.”

The following year, in 2022, Toranzo Jaeger was awarded the Finkenwerder Prize for recent graduates at her alma mater, Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg, where she studied under Jutta Koether. “I came to understand the power of painting from the women who taught me: instead of wanting recognition from the male critics of their generation, they created their own system of critique and validation, which was so inspiring.”

This past year, MoMA PS1 hosted Toranzo Jaeger’s first institutional solo show in New York, Autonomous Drive. The exhibition, curated by Ruba Katrib, Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at MoMA PS1, brought together over a dozen recent paintings, along with three new commissions. Examining her recurring themes of western advancement, from origin myths to technological feats, Toranzo Jaeger’s paintings put into question our investment in linear drives, accelerating instead in multilateral direction.

Frieda Toranzo Jaeger (b. 1988, Mexico City) lives and works in Mexico City. Following a BA in Fine Art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg, Toranzo Jaeger pursued an MFA at the same institution. Her work was the subject of a recent solo survey exhibition at MoMA PS1, Queens. She has had solo exhibitions at the HFBK, Hamburg; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; and Reena Spaulings, New York. Her work has recently been included in exhibitions at National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; BALTIC, Gateshead, United Kingdom; Frac Lorraine, Metz, France; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and MoMA Warsaw, Poland. A major installation by Toranzo Jaeger was recently acquired by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. In 2024, Toranzo Jaeger will be included in La Biennale di Venezia, Foreigners Everywhere, the 60th International Art Exhibition, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Her first European solo museum exhibition will open at Modern Art Oxford in March.

Exhibitions

Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: 2024 La Biennale di Venezia: Foreigners Everywhere

2024 La Biennale di Venezia: Foreigners Everywhere

17 Apr – 24 Nov 2024

Arsenale Corderie, Venice
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: A future in the light of darkness

A future in the light of darkness

16 Mar – 26 May 2024

Modern Art Oxford
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Uber: Déjame entrar

Uber: Déjame entrar

6 Feb – 23 Mar 2024

Travesía Cuatro
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Heart Core

Heart Core

28 Apr – 3 Jun 2023

Galeria Barbara Weiss
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Autonomous Drive

Autonomous Drive

22 Sep 2022 – 13 Mar 2023

MoMA PS1
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Nuestrxs Putxs

Nuestrxs Putxs

17 Jul – 21 Aug 2021

Human Resources, Los Angeles
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: The Perpetual Sense of Redness

The Perpetual Sense of Redness

6 Jun – 3 Oct 2021

Baltimore Museum of Art
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Deep Adaptation

Deep Adaptation

27 Apr – 15 Jun 2019

Galerie Barbara Weiss
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue

The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue

14 Feb 2019 – 10 May 2020

KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Autofelatio

Autofelatio

15 Dec 2018 – 26 Jan 2019

High Art, Paris
Featured Image (Installation View) of exhibtion: Die Windschutzscheibe

Die Windschutzscheibe

12 Nov – 17 Dec 2017

Reena Spaulings Fine Art

Press

El arte mexicano contra el machismo acapara en Venecia El Universal 27 Jun 2024Kat Herriman 10 Must-See Exhibitions at the Venice Biennale W Magazine Apr 2024Ben Luke Venice Biennale 2024 Review | Intimacy and violence: 'Foreigners Everywhere' explodes the Biennale model The Art Newspaper Apr 2024Chloe Stead Arsenale Review: ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ Treads Familiar Ground Frieze Apr 2024Maximilíano Durón, Alex Greenberger, Emily Watlington Our Critics Predict the Golden Lion Winners at the 2024 Venice Biennale ARTnews Apr 2024Maximilíano Durón At the Venice Biennale’s Contemporary Showcase, Living Artists Examine Queer and Indigenous Legacies ARTnews Apr 2024Pablo Larios Venice Diaries: Fine Young Cannibals Artforum Apr 2024Emily Watlington Venice Diary Day 1: A First Look Inside the Biennale’s “Foreigners Everywhere” Main Exhibition Art in America Apr 2024Modern Art Oxford Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: A future in the light of darkness Apr 2024Hettie Judah Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: A Future in the Light of Darkness review – a cosmic odyssey through feminism, botany and frisson The Guardian Mar 2024Anna Goetz Frieda Toranzo Jaeger Paints Christ Crucified by Capitalism Frieze Mar 2024Carolina Miranda With cars and kaiju, artists Umar Rashid and Frieda Toranzo Jaeger subvert American myth Los Angeles Times Mar 2023Sarah Moroz The artist exploring queer bliss and the apocalypse through her paintings i-D Feb 2023Geoffrey Mak Frieda Toranzo Jaeger's Queer Utopian Fantasies Cultured Dec 2022Natalia Sielewicz Frieda Toranzo Jaeger CURA S/S 2022Frieda Toranzo Jaeger Frieda Toranzo Jaeger on Semiological Vandalism and Decolonial Futures ARTnews Jun 2021Greg Nissan Frieda Toranzo Jaeger's Closed Circuits of Desire Frieze Jun 2019Gabriella Pounds Frieda Toranzo Jaeger Artforum 2019

Publications

Book cover on plain background with title of Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: Autonomous Drive

Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: Autonomous Drive

Zolo Press
2024

Book cover on plain background with title of The Making of Husbands. Christina Ramberg in Dialogue

The Making of Husbands. Christina Ramberg in Dialogue

Walther König bookstore, Köln & KW Institute for C
2019