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bis 25.07. | #2053ARTatBerlin | galerie gerken shows since 1st June 2018 the exhibition “stein.farbe”with artworks by the sculptor Michael Schoenholtz and the painter Barbara Keidel.
The exhibition stein.farbe presents two established artists, who are a part of the gallery since the opening in 2004. The characteristic curatorial program with its mixture of sculpture and painting is straightened consciously within this show. In the front of the gallery Michael Schoenholtz presents his sculptures, in the back Barbara Keidel displays her paintings. Both positions and the particular connected medial aspects are able to unfold their effect autonomously within this division.
Michael Schoenholtz is one of the most important German sculptors of the 21st century. His formal language roots in a fundamental connection to the material. This relation is the basis and unifying aspect of content and form. In an archaic manner the shell limestone reports from another aeon and appears as a condensed temporality. Schoenholtz uses this immanent vibrancy of the material and lets the stone grow into an organic expression without taking its breath away. His works are originated in the human physis which defines the starting point of fragmentation and finds its aim in compact and architectural compositions. Schoenholtz’ own physical proportions act as an anchor and a security regarding formal arbitrariness. The human form is as important as the connection to architectural systems. Symmetry is flanked by a formal breakup, a geometrical austerity is breathed away by the rough surface and set orders find their opposite in unforeseeable sculptural solutions. Schoenholtz’ works claim for eternity in their concentrated and reduced language, which temporally directs to the past and the future and leads to a captivating aura. Symbolic and strong, vulnerable and vivid, impregnable but still within reach Schoenholtz’ sculptures compress fundamental knowledge of the human being and its inner structures.
Michael Schoenholtz, Leer, 2015, Concrete, 37 x 37 x 32 cm
Michael Schoenholtz, Bouquet,
2017, shell limestone, 94 x 32 x 20 cm
Michael Schoenholtz, sailing ship,
2018, shell limestone 30 x 29 x 29 cm
Barbara Keidel’s pictorial expression oscillates between natural grown structures and abstract imagery. With a calm concentration Keidel crystallizes the essential character of the forms by keeping the relation between alienation and the empirical appearance. The last mentioned is the starting point and the motor of constant inspiration within the artistic transformation. Keidel balances between concreteness and its dissolution offering the viewer a connection to the own pictorial memory and breaking with this recognition immediately. Within this progress her works never lose the connection to the actual visual phenomenon but find a new form of appearance in the reduction of abstraction. The leaf canopy and the backyard, a cardboard and a landscape are captured in their elementary order. In this reduction to the main compositional information they find a possible appearance in Keidels paintings. The impression of a perspective in the structural order of planes returns directly to two-dimensionality and searches again for the deepness of the room. The variation of simplicity in rich colors and constructive forms leads to a contemplative perception, a pausing in fast times.
Barbara Keidel, Kraftwerk, 2018, acrylic, nettle, 42 x 67 cm
Exhibition period: Friday, 1st June to Wednesday, 25th July 2018
Midissage: Friday, 6th July 2018, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm in conjunction with an artist tour
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Image caption cover: Courtesy galerie gerken – Barbara Keidel – Michael Schoenholtz
Exhibition Barbara Keidel – Michael Schoenholtz – galerie gerken | Contemporary Art – Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin – ART at Berlin
