Exhibition
Mitchell Anderson, Rockets
Opening : 22.01.2026, 6pm
Exhibition : 23.01 – 03.03.2026
Rockets, ed. of the CEC, 2026
At the Centre d’édition contemporaine in Geneva, Mitchell Anderson (b. 1985) presents a new edition and related exhibition tracing the genealogies and ongoing legacy of postwar rocketry.
Appearing in news stories of billionaires’ pleasure cruises into space, the daily bombing of civilian infrastructure, and renewed interest in space exploration by global powers, the rocket has returned as a contemporary global icon. A condensé of anxieties about possible futures, it haunts real-time media as much as children’s commodified dreams and concrete nightmares.
Using actual graphite relics from WWII-era V-2 rockets, from which all modern rocketry descends, Anderson has produced an edition of coloring pages based on children’s drawings of rockets, alongside large-scale wall drawings of rocket trajectories and related works that traverse handicraft and the readymade. The rocket is approached as a continuous trajectory, carrying both wonder and violence, whose ascent, use, and impact remain inextricable.
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Mitchell Anderson’s artistic approach draws on a variety of cultural and historical materials, both sought out and found. In his work, encaustic, embroidery, and writing form a technical repertoire that the artist uses to translate and structure primary sources. Through encoding and the recurring play of colors and symbols, the objects produced explore how the accumulation and circulation of signs come to normalize cultural values and practices.
Beyond the commercial nature of things, his objects generously offer themselves to the gaze. They allow for multiple interpretations that ultimately point to the contradictions inherent in the construction of a democratic, shared or public environment. Sensitive to context, Anderson’s work uses objects to evoke residual histories and their latent potentials, forcing contemporary art’s discourse to confront its own complicity.
Mitchell Anderson was born in 1985 in Chicago, USA. He lives and works in Zurich. Recent solo exhibitions include : Starship Troopers, Stiftung BINZ39, Zurich (2025) ; Sonnet, Galerie Bernheim, London (2025) ; Landschaftsgemälde, Kunsthalle 8000, Wädenswil (2023) ; Moon Piece, The Apostle and Related Works, Fondazione Converso, Milano (2019) ; as mountain winds, Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg (2017). His work has been featured in group exhibitions such as : Kunststipendien der Stadt Zurich, Helmhaus, Zurich (2025) ; Mirror Map, Fondation Opale, Lens (2025) ; Great Works, Galerie Oskar Weiss, Zurich (2025) ; Pictures & After, MAMCO, Geneva (2023) ; Lose Enden, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern (2021) ; Sommer des Zögerns, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich (2019). With Daniel Baumann, he recently curated the Zurich Biennial I (2023) and II (2025). He is represented by Bernheim Gallery, Zurich/London, and has been running the artist space Plymouth Rock in Zurich, since 2014.