Until December 20, Wentrup presents Blind Faith, Hope, Pandora’s box, Messiahs, the fourth solo exhibition by Los Angeles–based artist Karl Haendel at the gallery. Comprising a new body of large- and small-scale drawings installed across the gallery space, the exhibition continues Haendel’s rigorous investigation into the conceptual and formal possibilities of drawing as a primary medium.
In this exhibition, he deepens this engagement by forgoing traditional framing, allowing most works to be pinned or stapled directly to the wall. The resulting presentation invites a more tactile and unmediated viewing experience—one that foregrounds the presence of the artist’s hand and emphasizes the material qualities of graphite on paper. The spatial arrangement of the works—positioned at varying heights and angles—further encourages physical movement through the exhibition, compelling the viewer to engage with each drawing individually and from different perspectives. Thematically, the exhibition addresses a range of urgent concerns related to personal identity, vulnerability, masculinity, and collective anxiety.
The exhibition title references existential tensions and unresolved contradictions, and the works themselves oscillate between introspective self-portraiture, social commentary, and formal experimentation. In a series of drawings exploring male identity, Haendel examines alternative images of masculinity—depicting men in moments of emotional intimacy, parental care, or self-reflection. Elsewhere, a monumental drawing of a modernist interior—serene in its design—gives way to a catastrophic external Boschian scene glimpsed through its windows, a visual metaphor for internalized fear and global instability.
For Haendel, drawing is more than a technical exercise: it is a mode of thinking and a political stance. His choice of medium—introspective, meticulous, and deliberately analog—stands in contrast to the pace and ephemerality of contemporary visual culture. “Drawing is the slow accumulation of small, thoughtful marks on a receptive surface,” he notes, “intrinsically human, soft-spoken, relatable, and unpretentious.”
For more information, please consult Wentrup’s website here.
Last Updated on December 11, 2025
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About the author:
Maxim Foucquet is a curator, art critic, and contemporary artist residing and working in Belgium.
