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until 23.05. | #1862ARTatBerlin | galerie gerken presents from 2nd March 2018 the group exhibition “Best of galerie gerken” with artworks by 14 artists of the gallery.
For the first time a comprehensive overview of the representative artistic positions is to be made possible with the exhibition Best of galerie gerken. On two floors, 14 artists present their works, which range in their diversity from classical genres to kinetic sculpture. The heterogeneity of the gallery program, the different qualities and strengths of the positions unfold a complex dialogue with each other, so on the one hand surprising similarities, on the other hand also wide differences are shown. In its entirety, this presentation tells of unity in diversity, an open program whose composition is based exclusively on the extraordinaryness of the positions.
Participating artists:
Tinka Bechert ∙ Julia Benz ∙ Jan Bernstein ∙ Peter Feiler ∙ Anja Fußbach ∙ Helga Gerken-Grieshaber
Armin Göhringer ∙ Nils Kasiske ∙ Tegene Kunbi ∙ Dieter Mammel ∙ Werner Pokorny ∙ Peter Tomschiczek ∙ Voré ∙ Peter Wackernagel
In her painting, Tinka Bechert formulates fundamental questions about the medium and its means. With an extraordinary flair for color and composition, Bechert always enables, in addition to pure aesthetic feeling, a multi-layered dimension of content. Among other things, this feeds on the various time and life impressions of Bechert, whereby her birthplace Berlin and her chosen place of residence on the west coast of Ireland are regarded as central influences. In the context of this exhibition Bechert presents completely new ways of its painterly expression. The abstraction in the open space plays a central role in this, giving the forms their space for working, moving and unfolding.
The paintings of Julia Benz celebrate the borderline between everyday visible and mystical concealment. Both worlds of experience are not mutually exclusive, but influence each other dynamically, creating fine intermediate levels and distant horizons of interpretation. The revealing and disguising, the abstract dissolution in the formal intimation go hand in hand in Benz’s painting and celebrate the ambivalence as a contextual and compositional occasion. The viewer can delve deep into the color worlds, follow the phenomenon of the brush movement, lose themselves in the dense color overlays and fall into Benz’s bottomless color cosmos.
Peter Feiler‘s energetic acrylic paintings draw the viewer deep into their multi-perspective pictorial world. The work youhu! is oriented strictly to the central axis of the polyptych and captivates by the motivic reflection: the recurring figures form a pattern, which draws as a formal idea of the entire system down to the last detail. Thus, Feiler unifies his complex scenario in which the distorted protagonists in exaggerated enthusiasm counter the defeated ice. The human existence and the bound up abysses, the grotesque of emotional worlds and an existential world pain meet here on an overbeautiful and light painting and drawing style, whereby the contrast of our paradoxical here and now is carried on.
Anja Fußbach recognizes the protagonists of everyday absurdities at first sight. With an ironic sensitivity for an overly explicit formulation, social critique finds a contemporary face. Disgusted and adoring, the careless consumers throw themselves at the feet of corporations, love the sugar sweetness of the status symbol in the kitchen cupboard. The idea of Nutella culminates in that thoughtlessness which, in combination with the carelessness of the carefree, culminates in a dangerous mixture. Fußbach’s material collages, combined with their craftsmanship and focus on content, create a complex picture that lives up to the perversions of today’s world.
The kinetic works of Jan Bernstein conceal questions of temporality under their subtle elegance. The continuous change of appearance, the gentle whirring of perfect mechanics and the movement as a motor of content unite into a complex reflection of transience. The minimalist aesthetic brings with it the necessary calm to contemplation, so that the viewer can only take up the thematic complexity while lingering. Gentle and sensitive, the works of Bernstein act as a possibility of pausing in times of inattentiveness.
The work cycles of Helga Gerken-Grieshaber question societal constructs and find in self-irony and down-to-earthness a refreshing impetuousness in dealing with one’s own artistic existence. The artist creates the frontier passage of deep reflection of emotional states as well as clear-cut honesty and leads an open dialogue with the viewer, which gives her works a merciless accessibility. In her work series down with the clothes she deals with politically relevant: The concealment of female bodies due to religious rules sets off a complex debate with regard to the female emancipation and is the subject of her work.
Armin Göhringer‘s preferred material is wood and its natural texture. He works exclusively from one piece and sculptures the filigree compositions to a dialectical interaction of carrying and loads, pressure and counter pressure. At the same time, the artist and the material are engaged in an intensive dialogue characterized by the limit experiences of the statically possible. Regardless of the massive material, the sculptures seem fragile and firm at the same time due to filigree cross-linking and the balancing of heavy elements on thin bars in a balanced equilibrium. The dark monochrome coloring of the wood gives the works a graphic contrast to the surrounding space without excluding it.
As a sculptor and illustrator, Nils Kasiske allegorizes iconic images and symbols across genres, casting a cynical view of the modern zeitgeist, which is determined by personality cult, mass consumption and self-staging. In his series The Misanthropist’s Gym Kasiske presents in ironic exaggeration the eternal yearning for authority. So weights and punching bags get nameless faces, silently looking towards blind self-optimization. The anonymity of powerlessness, the lived irresponsibility towards the individual and the pressure of the meritocracy provide an unobstructed view of the problems of our time.
Tegene Kunbis abstract paintings draw their power from the tension between flat geometry and multi-layered depth graduation. Glaze over glaze, the intense color stripes overlap each other and tell of the artistic process’ Kunbis: The previous painterly moment is almost completely covered by a new layer without being lost. Delicately shimmering through the new stroke, symbiotic in the color mixture or as haptic Aufbäumung on the edge of the surfaces, the paintings Kunbis testify their own narrative temporality.
In the delicate monochrome of his painted paintings, Dieter Mammel gives insights into his personal experiences in interaction with current political debates. Central issues such as flight, travel and localization of the human being in society as well as the associated longings for arrival and acceptance are addressed and taken up in his works. Mammel sensitively recognizes the emotional differences and similarities of extremes and allows the viewer a profound image of his or our world.
Werner Pokorny formulates basic questions about composition, body-space relationships and materiality. At the center of the sculptural debate is the material steel, whose concentrated formal language lends the works an archaic effect. A recurrent cipher in Pokorny’s work is the house, sometimes voluminous, emphasized in the contour, distorted in perspective and slightly tilted. The sculptural potential of the formal variation of a theme is immediately a tribute to the poetry of the object and its complexity. The rusting of the steel gives Pokorny’s works another level of interpretation. In their massiveness, the works in the dark reddish brown find their own temporality and thus transience.
Peter Tomschiczek‘s works are mainly produced in series of works whose titles can be assigned to the respective motif series: Gatterweg, Senegambia, Pictures of the Sea and Gurunsi. The works from the respective cycles prove their unity in both formal and color terms. The archaic perception of nature is the source of Tomschiczek’s artistic work, in which he collects impressions and nature experiences. With his roots in Informel, Tomschiczek’s work commits the borderline between genres: in plastic material collages, the oil color unites with sand and earth, giving the canvas a complex surface structure.
The fragmented human figure is the focus of Voré‘s small-scale wall objects made of sandstone. The shapes grow out of the characteristics of the stone, which reacts sensitively to any touch. The editing traces are comprehensible to the viewer and report on the artistic process of form finding between organic and abstract elements. Hard broken edges and soft transitions are united in the fragile material and tell of a dualism that poses greater questions to humans and their perception of their own being, their world.
Peter Wackernagel‘s minimalist space and wall objects are based on the developments of an irregular hexahedron. The work series Broken Cubes deals with the reflection on the elementary form formation and is the concentrated result of a multi-year examination of the body, the surface and the material. The works unfold into the room in an elegant pureness and reflect the complexity of geometric bodies in their multi-layered shadows. Surrounded by a black contour, Wackernagel emphasizes the plastic movement, revealing another dimension of perception and thus reflecting the usual order of body and space.
On the occasion of the Gallery Weekend from April 27 to April 29, 2018, there will be an exhibition-related accompanying program from various events in addition to the extended opening hours. More information about the program will follow shortly.
During the Gallery Weekend from April 27th to April 29th 2018 the gallery will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Vernissage: Friday, 02nd March 2018, 06:00 – 09:00 p.m.
Midissage: Friday, 27th April 2018, 06:00 – 09:00 p.m.
Performance: Nils Kasiske – Saturday, 28th April 2018, noon – 02:00 p.m.
Performance: Tinka Bechert and Anja Fußbach – Saturday, 28th April 2018, 07:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: Friday, 02nd March 2018 – Wednesday, 23rd May 2018
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Image caption cover: Courtesy galerie gerken – Tinka Bechert
Exhibition Best of galerie gerken – Gruppenausstellung – galerie gerken | Contemporary Art – Kunst in Berlin – ART at Berlin
