Press: Berliner Morgenpost

CULTURE Read Hear SeeAkim Monet also knows the extent to which one can derive strength from time taken away from business. The Swiss gallery owner lived in Italy for a few years, where he dedicated himself exclusively to his own art: photography. Since then, he moved to Berlin where he is returning to his career as an art dealer. His new “Side by Side Gallery” is situated in a period building on the former site of the “Tagesspiegel”. His first exhibition “Fertility” proves that his old networks are still perfectly operational. The opening is set for next Friday, although the gallery will be open unofficially from Wednesday. Not only is the choice of works of great quality, but also quite surprising: who actually knew what an excellent draughtsman Tracey Emin was. Here the Brit is represented by three tender monotypes -in fact quite “hard-core” self-portraits of the artist masturbating. They correspond to an exquisite drawing by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner representing a couple laying in bed in post-coital harmony, even though Emin’s feminist self-portraits rub against Kirchner’s macho and kitsch vision. There are other powerful artists in this exhibition, such as Louise Bourgeois who at the age of 97 still painted pregnant women. (Until October 29, Postdamerstrasse 81b, Schöneberg)
Berliner Morgenpost, September 4, 2011

CULTURE Read Hear See 

Akim Monet also knows the extent to which one can derive strength from time taken away from business. The Swiss gallery owner lived in Italy for a few years, where he dedicated himself exclusively to his own art: photography. Since then, he moved to Berlin where he is returning to his career as an art dealer. His new “Side by Side Gallery” is situated in a period building on the former site of the “Tagesspiegel”. His first exhibition “Fertility” proves that his old networks are still perfectly operational. The opening is set for next Friday, although the gallery will be open unofficially from Wednesday. Not only is the choice of works of great quality, but also quite surprising: who actually knew what an excellent draughtsman Tracey Emin was. Here the Brit is represented by three tender monotypes -in fact quite “hard-core” self-portraits of the artist masturbating. They correspond to an exquisite drawing by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner representing a couple laying in bed in post-coital harmony, even though Emin’s feminist self-portraits rub against Kirchner’s macho and kitsch vision. There are other powerful artists in this exhibition, such as Louise Bourgeois who at the age of 97 still painted pregnant women. (Until October 29, Postdamerstrasse 81b, Schöneberg)