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until 08.07 | #3936ARTatBerlin | Galerie Tammen presents from 03. June 2023 the group exhibition “Portrait I” with 7 various Artists.
Galerie Tammen is planning the exhibition series PORTRAIT I. – III. The first part of the exhibition “Portrait I” shows works by the following artists*: Jon Thor Gislason, Volker Leyendecker, Ellen Mäder-Gutz, Bettina Sellmann, Martin Stommel, Rubica von Streng, Lars Theuerkauff.
Nowhere is the human being so visibly present as in his face. For thousands of years, people have therefore tried to decipher the face and capture it in pictures.
Abb. Volker Leyendecker, „Litith VI“, 2023, Öl auf Leinwand 120 x 80 cm
What is the significance of the artistic portrait today in the age of the media flood of faces? In a time of digital omnipresence of portraits on Facebook pages, of selfies as a new form of self-portrait, in times of plastic surgery and computer-generated special effects, of digital facial recognition and simulation of facial expressions. Can it still be seen at all? The face, like the body, has always been subject to different cultural techniques, codes of expression and aesthetic criteria, the reciprocal relationship of gaze and sight. This is also reflected in the history of the portrait and its respective memorial, political and aesthetic form. The representation of the human face has always oscillated between reproduction and invention, between authenticity and representation, between proximity and distance. In the respective realisation of a portrait as an external view of a being endowed with affects or feelings, it is also about the understanding of an individual, about his or her appearance in the world, about the subject for whom self-experience becomes possible in the image, in the gaze and counter-gaze. This is also the moment of art, especially today.
In memoriam Dr Dorothée Bauerle-Willert
Abb. Lars Theuerkauff, Lucian ♥︎ Tilda 5, 2023, Acryl auf Leinwand, 33,5 x 38,5 cm
The artist Rubica von Streng is part of the exhibition Portrait I. Rubica von Streng shows selected paintings from her work cycle “PortLand”.
In her “PortLand” paintings (oil on canvas, oil on paper), von Streng allows the face, body, events and areas to merge into imagined portraits of inner and outer landscapes. In the process, layer by layer, visually stimulating inventories of the topography of our planet are created using the so-called arpeggio painting technique developed by the artist herself. “At first, fleeting glance, a peaceful scene unfolds in the paintings,” says the 30-year-old painter. “But if you look more closely, you will see a world of desire, struggle and change.” The “PortLand” cycle, which she has been working on since 2018, is about, among other things, “dealing with the limits of civilisation and transcending them, sometimes also looking into abysses – and beyond the horizon”, she says. “Intensely worked compositions between figure and landscape characterise Rubica von Streng’s very independent paintings,” adds gallery owner Werner Tammen. “Profoundly trained in Karlsruhe and Berlin, she consciously strives to reach the Berlin art public – and beyond – with a compact package of exhibitions and catalogues. We are delighted about her participation in our first portrait project.”
Rubica von Streng, Towards Portland paths in different
The book on Rubica von Streng’s “Limits of PortLand”, the second part of the cycle, was published in autumn 2022. In addition to more than 40 productions of works, it contains an essay by the Dutch curator Jurriaan Benschop as well as an interview with the artist in which she provides information about the creation of the paintings and her motivation. The book, co-financed by the Spiegelberger Kunststiftung, Hamburg, is available at the Tammen Gallery.
Rubica von Streng, portrait by efactsphoto, May 2023
About the artist:
Born in Berlin in 1992, Rubica von Streng studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe and at the University of the Arts in Berlin (UdK). There she graduated as a master student in 2018. In 2019, she took part in the highly acclaimed exhibition “Taking Root” at the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle (KIT), and in 2020 she exhibited large-scale works from the series “Towards PortLand” at the Berlin Kunstraum Torstraße 111. In October 2022, ten paintings from the series “Limits of PortLand” were on view at Musee Dezentral, an exhibition venue in the Metaverse. From 19 May to 25 October 2023, von Streng’s extensive cycle of works “Totentanz” (2017-2020) will be shown at the Kulturkirche Stralsund.
Opening: Saturday, 3. June 2023, 7pm
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 3. June 2023 until Saturday, 8. July 2023
To the Gallery
Image caption: Rubica von Streng, Limits of Portland the open
Exhibition Portrait I – Galerie Tammen | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
