Review of Anselm Reyle Exhibition at TICK TACK

by Adela Lovric // Jan. 19, 2024

Contrary to what Anselm Reyle’s body of work may suggest at first glance⁠—think colorful foils that earned an unflattering comparison with Jeff Koons⁠—his background and modus operandi are far more punk than pop. ‘Disorder,’ his current exhibition at TICK TACK in Antwerp⁠, is a case in point. The title already says it all: it’s a direct reference to a legendary UK punk band, but also a perfect summary of what’s taking place across three floors of the brutalist venue. Above all, it’s a playfully sincere show; the young gallery granted Reyle the opportunity that an artist of his renown and commercial value doesn’t get all too often⁠—to do what he wants, without the pressure of having to sell or appear in a certain way.

Anselm Reyle: ‘Disorder,’ 2023, installation view // Courtesy of Anselm Reyle and TICK TACK, Antwerp

‘Disorder’ is a retrospective of sorts, presenting a selection of works dating from 2008 to the present in an immersive, site-specific setting. For this exhibition, Reyle revisited Abstract Expressionism, one of his (self-admittedly) main artistic influences, filling a fire extinguisher with paint and blasting it across the black walls and ceilings. The wide, energetic gestural splatters were then meticulously overlaid with fluorescent paint that glows in the dark under UV-A lamps, which is key to the night version of the display. Drips and splatters of paint are left laying around, like evidence of an explosive action. The gallery floor is filled with colored specks, faux-accidental neon footprints and discarded paint buckets. It’s a carefully constructed image of chaos; a staging of the mythical notion of a passionate albeit troubled artist; an art-crime scene laying itself bare for the public all day and night long through TICK TACK’s grand glass facade.

Anselm Reyle: ‘Disorder,’ 2023, installation view // Courtesy of Anselm Reyle and TICK TACK, Antwerp

Having the freedom to execute ideas that weren’t feasible elsewhere, Reyle decided to turn two of the gallery floors into reflective surfaces. Mirrors are one of the main components of his work, used in the Heinz Mack way of savoring light and generating new perspectives rather than as a navel-gazing device. But unlike Mack, Reyle’s mirror tricks are not minimalist and neat. They multiply the messiness and material debris that makes up the majority of his pieces⁠ on display—used fire extinguishers, a corroded metal plate, bits and pieces of old neon signs rearranged into abstract compositions. While many of Reyle’s works call for comparisons with the sleekness of Zero Group and garishness of Pop Art, ‘Disorder’ couples these characteristics with the abjectness of Arte Povera and the unruliness of the post-Wall Berlin squats.

Anselm Reyle: ‘Disorder,’ 2023, installation view // Courtesy of Anselm Reyle and TICK TACK, Antwerp

Eventually, every notion of beauty turns into ugliness, cool becomes cringe, groundbreaking becomes outdated and subversive finds its place in the state- or billionaire-funded institution. Reyle, in his own brand of punk, turns things around and places contemporary culture’s throwaways as centerpieces⁠, indiscriminately—whether it’s Koonsian glossy kitsch, the bourgeoisie-favorite Meissen porcelain or the US Abstract Expressionism that has been debunked and “cancelled” as CIA’s psy-op weapon. It’s an approach that extends to his use of materials, such as industrial discards and various found objects that are no longer wanted or needed. This emphatic angle, which can get lost in the brashness and glitziness of the exhibition and many of Reyle’s artworks, fits so well with the artist’s surprisingly soft-spoken, gentle disposition masked by a thin veil of edginess.

Anselm Reyle: ‘Disorder,’ 2023, installation view // Courtesy of Anselm Reyle and TICK TACK, Antwerp

As much as disorder as a concept reflects the deranged state of the world at present, Reyle’s continuous practice of disordering neat arrangements and cultural standards of the moment seems to come from an internal grappling with his own contradictions and the urge to disobey life’s cycles of impermanence. To embody life’s paradoxes and extend the grace for others to do the same is a strong statement that proved its timelessness once again at TICK TACK, where Gen Z both runs and attends the show.