Kunsthalle Zürich has just opened the first comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist Pippa Garner (born in 1942 in Evanston, Illinois) in Europe. It offers insight into an extensive body of work spanning more than 50 years. Formerly known as Philip Garner, Pippa Garner is an artist and author known for making parody forms of consumer products, custom bicycles and automobiles, and publications such as The Better Living Catalog and Utopia—or Bust! Products for the Perfect World. One of Garner’s most significant works is the Backwards Car, a used Chevrolet where Garner removed the body from its chassis and flipped it around, so the car appeared to be driving backwards when it was moving forwards and vice-versa.

The exhibition in Zürich takes on and expands the exhibition on show at Kunstverein Munich in 2022. The exhibition is co-curated by the New-York based author Fiona Alison Duncan; the director of Kunstverein Munich, Maurin Dietrich; and the director of Kunsthalle Zürich, Daniel Baumann, in collaboration with the assistant curator of Kunsthalle Zürich, Otto Bonnen, and the artist Miriam Laura Leonardi. The exhibition runs until May 14, 2023, and runs concurrently with the exhibition Ibrahim El-Salahi: Pain Relief Drawings.

Pippa Garner: Act Like You Know Me / Kunsthalle Zürich. Introduction by co-curator Fiona Alison Duncan. Zürich (Switzerland), February 3, 2023.