Renate Bertlmann, Zärtliche Berührungen (Tender Touches), 1976/2009

Renate Bertlmann, Zärtliche Berührungen (Tender Touches), 1976/2009

It’s a huge honour to display Bertlmann’s work. The 75-year-old Viennese artist has spent her 50-year career creating boundary-pushing works that tackle huge subjects centered around women’s experiences, like gender norms, sexism, pregnancy, motherhood and sexuality.

Renate Bertlmann (left) at the Seven North opening party. Pictured with husband Reinhold Bertlmann and Max Brown’s founder and owner, Liran Wizman. Photo by Philipp Lipiarksi.

Her works on display at Seven North are seminal pieces from her iconic Tender Touches series, in which inflated latex condoms that resemble teats caress each other in suggestive ways. These works brought together the phallic and feminine, playing with our idea of gender and sexuality. When the film created with this series was first shown in Germany in the late ’70s, audiences were so scandalized by its overt eroticism that it was banned from major exhibitions. We believe the work’s humourous spirit wonderfully complements Seven North’s carefree attitude.

This year, Bertlmann is making history at the Venice Biennale as the first woman artist to take over the Austrian Pavilion, happening now through late November. Also if you find yourself in London, don’t miss her at Richard Saltoun Gallery’s 100% Women exhibition on view as of 15 November in London.

Art curator – Idit Orni