English
Deutsch
until 22.04. | #3810ARTatBerlin | Galerie SCHMALFUSS BERLIN presents from 18. March 2023 the solo exhibition Reisende vor Ort by the artist Roland Stratmann. It shows the multi-layered and enigmatic repertoire of works by the internationally established artist.
“Art lovers feel like travellers in our current exhibition: always on the move, hungry for adventure, driven by the desire to discover,” says Michael W. Schmalfuß. For many years, he has worked in a trusting relationship with the artist Roland Stratmann, who is considered an insider tip by collectors. His picture tableaus and drawings force the viewer to jump back and forth between close-up and distant views. His sculptures have to be circled in order to grasp what is behind them. The presentation in the gallery is designed as a parkour: From different angles, new discoveries can be made again and again, unexpected perspectives arise and contexts open up that raise critical questions.
Roland Stratmann’s solo exhibition entitled Travellers on Site shows large picture tableaus, small-format PostCuts as well as sculptural works, including works from the current series ArcheNo and The World is a Disc.
With great precision, Roland Stratmann creates multi-layered tableaus with ambiguous pictorial content. The basis for this is formed by postcards that have been run, from whose texts Stratmann picks out a pithy quotation. He draws this in large letters over the cards and combines the statement with an ink drawing. The motifs in the TaxiDerma series show astonishingly lively-looking animal preparations. In the works of the series PaterNoster, popes, blindly above all earthly things, ignore the play of children. The series Couples confronts couples from different cultural circles and thus refers to a Eurocentric view. In this way, we become aware of the clichés we still adhere to. The viewers are challenged to fathom the complexity of the images and to go on an imaginary journey with their associations.
The sculptures in the most recent series ArcheNo and Die Welt ist eine Scheibe reflect Roland Stratmann’s exploration of the interaction between the symbolic content of animals and the medium of the book as a carrier of human knowledge. We are familiar with animals as symbolic placeholders for human qualities, especially from fables. Stratmann repeatedly deals with the selfish treatment of animals. In his work, animals experience ruptures, are fragmented or formed from discarded pieces of clothing. Sometimes they confront us in a provocatively alien manner, sometimes they appear very familiar, such as the rhinoceros after Dürer’s small-format woodcut.
Roland Stratmann, born in 1964 in Südlohn, studied – after training as a printmaker and attending the Fachoberschule für Gestaltung, Münster – at the Universität der Künste Berlin from 1984 to 1990. This was followed by numerous stays abroad financed by scholarships. In addition, STRATMANN has received various awards and prizes, such as the current scholarship from the NEUSTARTplus Art Fund Foundation.
Roland Stratmann’s works have been exhibited to date in numerous national and international museums, including the Royal Academy in London, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, the Cobra Museum voor moderne Kunst in Amstelveen, the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, the Palacio Nacional de las Artes in Buenos Aires as well as the Gropius Bau and the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Roland Stratmann’s works are represented in many collections, such as the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the Kunstsammlung des Deutschen Bundestages, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Kunststiftung Rainer Wild in Heidelberg.
Roland Stratmann has lived in Berlin since 1984.
Vernissage: Saturday, 18 March 2023, 4:00 – 8:00 pm
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 18 March to Saturday, 22 April 2023
To the Gallery
Image caption title: courtesy of Galerie Schmalfuss, Roland Stratmann
Exhibition Roland Stratmann – Galerie SCHMALFUSS BERLIN – Zeitgenössische Kunst – Exhibitions Berlin Galleries – ART at Berlin
