COURTESY COSIMA VON BONIN
It’s raining news from Germany this morning. First up was word that the Berlin-based Isa Genzken, doyenne of the nation’s scene, has won the Nasher Sculpture Center’s annual prize, and now comes the revelation that another inimitable sculptor from the land of Beethoven, Cosima von Bonin, who’s a stalwart of the Cologne art world, is now represented by the gallery Gaga in Mexico City.
Von Bonin’s been on a tear in recent years, with thrilling shows of sculptures of underwater creatures—stuffed fabric and plastic and always full of humor, at once jolly and dark—at SculptureCenter and Petzel in New York and the unveiling of a nautical-themed playground outside the de Young Museum in San Francisco. In April, the artist told Eleanor Heartney in an interview for the Brooklyn Rail of her process: “I can’t draw. I can’t do anything. I just can talk. I’ve always had professionals work with me. I can’t sew. If I touch the scissors I get really worried. I can’t sit at a table. I don’t know how. I was a very strange kid and I hid in bed. Now I work in bed.”
The capital of Mexico has never hosted von Bonin’s work in a solo show (or even in a group show, according to her CV), so it’s rather wonderful to note that she’ll have a one-woman exhibition at her new gallery next May.