Markus Lüttgen opens his new gallery space with two recent works by British artist, Chris Evans: ‘Untitled (Drippy Etiquette)’ and ‘A Needle Walks into a Haystack’. This is Chris Evans’ third show with Markus Lüttgen and his first solo exhibition in Cologne. Soliciting the dream life of honchos and henchmen is the crux of Evans’ artworks. Characterised by the realisation of unsolicited assignments, his work evolves through conversations with people from a broad range of professions — selected in relation to their symbolic or public role. Collaboration becomes entangled along invisible paths of consultation and social processes – that muddy the roles of artist and patron, genius and muse – become crystallised and encased in art objects.

*Untitled (Drippy Etiquette) takes form from the surplus of a project titled Morning Star Rebranded. Evans approached Morning Star – the UK’s only Marxist daily broadsheet – offering a free rebrand, suggesting that their current graphic identity could be mis-associated with the styles of right-wing or tabloid newspapers such as The Sun (the equivalent of Germany’s BILD); and therefore undermining their own distinct ideological message. Morning Star Rebranded was originally commissioned by How to work together, an alliance of public art institutions in London, however the newspaper withdrew their involvement when they found out that the organisation was sponsored by finance company Bloomberg. With this pitch denied, the two worms, that feature in an illustration produced as companion to the Open Letter to Morning Star’s editors, share their surprise and exasperation with us, pinned to the wall with burnt poles of larch and accompanied by a pair of concrete discs.