alles/nichts/oder (all/nothing/or)
05 June - 31 July 2010
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| | Kai Klahre / fragment / 2010 / 30 x 21 cm / oil on copperplate, wood / courtesy Galerie koal |
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Galerie koal is pleased to present, as
of June 4, 2010, an exhibition project by the documentary filmmaker
(e.g. ICH. IMMENDORFF) and art aficionado Nicola Graef. Under the title
alles/nichts/oder (all/nothing/or), Graef brings about an encounter of
works by artists represented by the gallery and the figurative positions
of another set of artists.
Statement on the exhibition by Nicola Graef:
there it hangs, the canvas, all but entirely white, almost nothing,
seemingly nothing. for in the paintings by the berlin artist daniel
biesold (*1964) everything is concealed in nothingness. the viewer is
left to his own devices in tackling this nothingness, if he engages, he
will be able to see all, if he is rushed, he will quite possibly see
nothing, if he queries the point to all this, it will already be too
late,… when figures dissolve, disquiet ensues. the type of disquiet that
demands quick understanding. however, ready-made explanations are not
to be had from the nuremberg-based painter kai klahre (*1981), either.
on his tiny pictures of up to 10 centimetres, figures struggle free from
the paint while equally being devoured by the same paint. what appears
here is the eternal strife between being and nothingness, between
devotion and surrender. klahre‘s figures seek the support of form to
reassure themselves – but this, in turn, implies doubt, the search for
and vanishing of any trace of identity; what remains is a struggle for
affirmation in the image space, wrestling for the guardianship of
meaning between person and form…
berlin photographer ingo mittelstaedt (*1978), by contrast, captures
form, stages it. there is much to see, layers of colour, as though
stacked one above the other, distortions of form. yet the meaning of
what has been seen is loath to clarify itself. there is something, it
might be a figure or is it an abstract arrangement or even a mere
shadow? a stack of paper bundled off beyond recognition? nothing is what
it seems and yet everything seems plausible in these photographs… all
or nothing, or even both, is also lurking in the canvases held in black
by the berlin painter niels sievers (*1979). a dark landscape peels
itself from the frame, emerging with a glow which resides only in the
nuances in order to conceal itself once more behind the apparently
identifiable. siever‘s paintings are a dance between disappearing and
gleaming. not soft and intuitive, rather ominous and fickle are the
moods that become visible in these obscurities and render much
invisible-uncertain…
the berlin sculptor dennis feddersen (*1979) is, by contrast, direct and
confrontational. his wooden sculptures are parasitically eating into
the rooms, in order to usurp them. everything spatial in this form has
been shifted, a form which makes scrawly demands on everything, winds
its way, confident, purposeful and inexorable. form, here, marks out a
language of its own, turns into controller and dominator in a moment,
all is form all of a sudden, space is altered, has become organic. the
viewer has to comply… and is being watched to boot, by the three women
from hamburg. the artists ergül cengiz (*1975), henrieke ribbe (*1979)
and kathrin wolf (*1974). they, too, conquer space, are larger than life
in their presence on the wall, which is the ground of their paintings.
not shy or reticent, but mostly imperious, ironic and with a confident
gesture of "here we are”, the artists stage-manage themselves. they know
they are at risk of disappearing, one day they will vanish into the
white wall again, return to nothing, but while they are there they are
everything to themselves, to the viewer, to the space…
alles/nichts/oder (all/nothing/or) inquires after what becomes visible
in form, what might become visible, what options the abstract holds, if
the de-objectified confronts the re-identifiable in figuration. how does
gaze change when the unknown encounters the seemingly familiar?
allegedly two worlds and yet so many common features. wherein lies
meaning, how does it get there and what do we see: all in nothing?
nothing in everything, or is everything all there is – it will not be as
complicated as the german language, but the exhibition in the rooms of
the gallerist stephan koal makes a wish: permit everything, believe
nothing, or simply look.
www.galeriekoal.com |
