until 25.02. | #3695ARTatBerlin | galerie probst presents the group exhibition “Papierzauber – Kreativität gibt auch dem Leichten Gewicht” (paper magic – creativity gives weight even to the light), based on a quote by Karl-Heinz Karius, from 17 November 2022.
The invention of paper dates back about 2,000 years. In the course of more than 1,000 years, this knowledge travelled from China via Central Asia and Arabia to Egypt and finally from there to Italy in the 11th century. The first German paper mill was put into operation in Nuremberg in 1390. Paper has significantly advanced the progress of mankind and thus has an enormous historical and cultural significance
In addition to accelerating information, paper has also made a decisive contribution to the development of visual art. The texture and special feel of paper make images visible and tangible in a unique way. The absorbency and opacity of the paper play an essential role in this. Many people love the smell of freshly printed paper. In this way, art on paper can be experienced with three senses: seeing, feeling and smelling!
Fu Xiaotong, 1 89700孔 手工宣纸, 2020, Handpaper, 115 x 65 cm
In the exhibition Papierzauber (Paper Magic), the artist FuXiaotong, with her pictures made of paper perforations, and the artist Julia Sossinka, with her large-scale, walk-in paper installation, will show you what else you can create or “conjure” out of and with paper. You can only visit, walk through and touch this temporary unique piece during the exhibition at galerie probst. You might even catch a whiff of the typical scent of watercolour.
95 percent of paper is made from wood, a raw material that is becoming increasingly precious today. Thus, the value of a work of art created on or from particularly high-quality paper also increases. galerie probst regularly offers lectures on the subject of “art as value creation”. The material value of art has always played an attractive role in times of inflation. The gallery is happy to advise on this topic when purchasing a work of art.
Participating artists: FuXiaotong: Perforations in Xuan paper I Karl Kunz: Pencil on drawing board I Gabriele Hiller: Swamp lime on handmade daphne paper I Mariella Kerscher: Pencil and coloured pencil on paper I Julia Sossinka: Room installation made of watercolour paper I May Carro Cabaleiro: Highly pigmented colours on self-developed translucent paper.
Mariella Kerscher, N2,53°56’51.0_N 9°29’47.8 _E, 2022, Buntstift auf Papier, 29,7 x 21 cm
Mariella Kerscher, born in Augsburg in 1991, lives and works in Munich She uses paper, a material made from a natural and renewable raw material, to capture moments of growth and decay in her series “Nature”. In this ever-growing series, she simultaneously examines moments in nature such as: stagnant waters that are foul and frothy just before they “tip over”. Bubbling, cold mountain springs contrast with this. Different states of the forest are documented and preserved as snapshots. The titles of her pictures show the coordinates of the documented places. Mariella uses high-quality drawing paper. This paper is particularly heavy and has a grainy surface, which allows for a more extensive variation in tone and depth of colour.
Mariella Kerscher, N4,47°57’52.9 N 11°31’15.5 E, 2022, Buntstift auf Papier, 29,7 x 21 cm
Gabriele Hiller was born in Berlin, lives and works in Wildenbruch near Berlin. Her working method is intuitive and perceptive. Her paintings are created by instinctively engaging with the unpredictable and the moment. She works with old materials familiar from fresco painting – marsh lime and Italian marble powder – on handmade dulcimer paper. She applies the materials to the multi-layered dulcimer paper with squeegees. During the drying process, relief-like surfaces with developed structures and fine cracks are created. The dried works are further processed with self-made colours made of pure, unblended pigments. Each further application of paint leads to the refinement and deepening of her artwork by emphasising structures and allowing details to appear. In the next step she works on her work with pastel and silicate crayons. A final varnish binds the colours and fixes the picture. Because the creative process cannot be planned, her works of art are irretrievably unique. The relief-like, sculptural paintings in finely tuned, mostly earthy colour nuances, often reminiscent of old walls and plaster-damaged walls, convey an aesthetic image of the transience of built things and create in the viewer a desire for haptic experience.
May Carro Cabaleiro was born in Galicia, Spain in 1961, lives in Berlin and works in Potsdam. The light in your artwork plays an elementary role. In order for the light rays to penetrate your artwork naturally, to integrate themselves and to make the artwork shine in a special way, it is essential to make the carrier material appear invisible. Therefore, the artist developed her own paper and a unique support with a transparent sheet of synthetic material, which she matches precisely to her works. The artist varies her colour palette, which at first glance appears monochrome, for her large and small-format works in phases. With a broad brushstroke, Cabaleiro applies the finely coordinated, highly pigmented colours in varying numbers of layers. In the process of painting, she allows herself to be guided almost exclusively by herself, lapsing into a meditative state that allows her to paint from an inner calm and strength.
FuXiaotong – Perforationen in Xuan-Papier
FuXiaotong, born in 1976 in Shanxi Province, China, lives and works in China. She is a master of perforation. Using a technique she developed herself, she uses a punching tool to make what initially appear to be simple holes in traditional Chinese rice paper. She varies the angle and diameter of the holes so that the light penetrates them differently. The resulting shadows of different lengths are thus visually pre-calculated by her for the creation of her landscapes. In this way, several hundred thousand very fine apertures create fantastic reliefs as if by magic. By taking away, FuXiaotong paves the way for her wonderful light landscapes!
Karl Kuhn – Bleistift auf Zeichenpapier
Karl Kunz, was born in Augsburg in 1905 and died in Frankfurt in 1971. His art has only recently been rediscovered and today his paintings can be seen in the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, among other places. From 1930 until his arrest by the Gestapo in 1933, he was a master student and assistant to Prof. Erwin Hahs at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Applied Arts in Halle/Saale. Karl Kunz was banned from painting in 1933 and henceforth counted among the “degenerate artists”. During the war he continued to paint secretly in his parents’ veneer business. After the end of the Second World War, he was given a teaching post at the State Art School for Arts and Crafts in Saarbrücken, where he was unexpectedly dismissed in 1949. Karl Kunz’s painting remained figurative and representational after 1945. He thus represented a counter-position to the abstract painting that dominated after 1945. In 1951 he received the Donmick Prize, in 1954 he took part in the Biennale, and in 1969 he was guest of honour at the Villa Massimo in Rome, to name just a few important stages in his artistic career. Paper plays a major role in Karl Kuhn’s oil paintings with collaged prints from newspapers and magazines as well as in his numerous drawings. In 1950 he wrote to a friend: “I draw because I have no money for paints”.
Julia Sossinka, born in Hattingen in 1983, lives and works in Berlin. She tears 400 g watercolour paper into strips that she has previously painted with shellac ink and glues them together. This is how she creates her sprawling installations, which grow to an impressive size and become spaces of their own. At first glance, their amazing stability makes us hardly believe that we are dealing with paper as a material. However, when we take a closer look and walk through the installation, we recognise the typical white tearing edges of the delicate material. Her paper installations make us forget the outside world for a moment and conjure up colourful in-between worlds made of a sea of paper.
Exhibition dates: Thursday, 17 November 2022. until Saturday, 25 February 2023
to the gallery
Caption Title: Julia Sossinka, on the move, Installation, Schwartzsche Villa, 2015, Detailansicht 3
Exhibition Papierzauber – galerie probst | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin