until 27.05. | #3888ARTatBerlin | Galerie SCHMALFUSS BERLIN shows on 29. April 2023 the Group exhibition “konkret-sinnlich” by the artists Edgar Diehl, Christiane Grimm, Wolf Münninghoff, Otto Scherer, Robert Stend and Matthias Will.
From 29 April to 27 May 2023, GALERIE SCHMALFUSS BERLIN presents for the first time in Berlin in a group exhibition the dazzling works of six artist personalities from southern Germany, which are full of countless haptic charms and unique in their way of making.
EDGAR DIEHL, CHRISTIANE GRIMM, WOLF MÜNNINGHOFF, OTTO SCHERER, ROBERT STENG and MATTHIAS WILL are presenting their works in Berlin for the first time. Starting from the parameters of concrete art, the six artists set themselves the challenge of creating works of art that have neither symbolic nor real content. What drives them is curiosity, love and a willingness to experiment with material-specific properties and their combinations. They consciously integrate unpredictable external influences into their works as a creative principle. The results are works full of visual stimuli, haptic diversity and unfathomable magic.
6 artists, 6 highly individual creative processes and more than 6 x 6 materials. From acrylic glass and sheet aluminium to stainless steel, ceramics and cedar wood.
Edgar Diehl, for example, uses aluminium sheets from which he forms reliefs. The bent segments allow a colourful setting that interacts with the viewer’s point of view and the incidence of light. The artist, who was born in 1950 in Sprendlingen/Rheinhessen, has been conducting colour research since the 1980s. And so in 2009 DIEHL developed a relief form in which the interplay of colour, form, light and shadow leads to a visual phenomenon. The object eludes classification through its contra-perspective, making the function of spatial perception surprisingly transparent.
CHRISTIANE GRIMM Fusion XII, 2023, mixed media and acrylic glass, 80 x 80 x 10 cm
Christiane Grimm creates plays of light full of sophistication from real antique and ribbed glass as well as industrial and acrylic glass. Her installations, wall objects and sculptures change their appearance depending on the incidence of light, shine from within even at low brightness, glitter, sparkle and sometimes react to black light. In passing, the viewer experiences colour transformations and optical illusions. The painter, born in Stuttgart in 1957, is one of the important artists in the border area of colour field painting and monochrome painting. Her paintings convey a sensuality between attraction and distance in the shine of their surfaces: the viewer is always an active participant in these works with his movement and perception.
WOLF MÜNNINGHOFF Multimodal 4, 2021, Walnut, 290 x 40 x 50 cm
Practical necessities of everyday life as well as inherent properties of the material inspire Wolf Münninghoff to his series of works. The main theme of his works with wood is the opening up of the material, the form and the space. For him, a sculpture is not a final product. What is decisive for him is the visibility of the sculptural process. This gives the object an aspect of time and movement that is concrete and dispenses with compositional depiction of movement. The sculptural process contains other states and possibilities. They remain visible or imaginable and can sometimes be practically or playfully comprehended by the user. The sculptor, born in Wermelskirchen in 1967, consciously works with a recognisable “before” and “after” or with several modules whose constellation is variable. This leads – often also via a changed spatial reference – to a transformation on the level of meaning.
OTTO SCHERER Large Platinum Wave Painting, 2020, Ceramic and Platinum, 84 x 84 x 3 cm
For about 15 years Otto Scherer has been working on a specific theme or cycle of works for a year, sometimes two years. This results in theme-specific series of 30 to 40, or even 50 works – mostly wall objects. In the past three years, the work cycles “Black and White” and “Modular Sculptures” have been created. His series are never completely finished. Further works can be added continuously. For his works, the artist, who was born in 1955 in Transylvania/Romania and has lived in Pürgen since 1991, uses materials as diverse as ceramics, acrylic glass, wood, metal, wax, silicone and much more. The only thing that connects these series is the reduction to the colours black, red, platinum and gold. In the current Berlin exhibition, SCHERER concentrates on the materials platinum and gold.
ROBERT STEND Three directions, 2022, veneers on plywood, 83 x 81 x 2 cm
Robert Steng has devoted himself entirely to the material wood. Born in Bietigheim-Bissingen in 1972, the artist transforms wood into geometric illusions that play with the viewer’s perception. STENG finds his material in the immediate neighbourhood. He collects wooden parts and furniture. He is inspired by seasoned timbers, surfaces coloured and tanned by sun and weather, the specifics of a grain and the beauty of carcase joints. Reassembled by sawing and gluing – always consistently conceived according to the formal – relief-like wall sculptures are created, which convey a spatial impression due to the different colours and textures. The sense of sight and touch are addressed in a special way in STENG’s objects. For each trompe-l’oeil – as STENG calls his works – there is an ideal location from which it should be viewed. The art lover should seek this out.
Matthias Will’s sculptures are made of steel and stainless steel. In creating his works, the metal sculptor concentrates on the basic shapes of circle, square, cube and sphere. WILL has been varying and combining these basic elements for years by sawing, cutting, welding, screwing and lashing. His objects radiate the lightness and elegance of flying bodies, yet have traction due to the heaviness of the material. WILL succeeds in a unique way in bracing massive work elements with each other in such a way that the entire work appears to float. The sculptor, born in 1947 in Kahl am Main, pursues the idea that a sculpture in its materiality and physicality is to be understood as a quantity that enters into a relationship with the spatial environment and defines itself without purpose between the states of tension, elasticity and balance.
DIEHL, GRIMM, MÜNNINGHOFF, SCHERER, STENG and WILL have a sound artistic training. Their works can be found in internationally renowned public and private collections and are also presented at fairs by renowned gallery owners worldwide.
Opening: Saturday, 29. April, 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm.
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 29. April – Saturday, 27. May 2023
To the gallery
Caption: EDGAR DIEHL Palimpsest XIII, 2021, relief, acrylic on aluminium sheet, 148 x 100 x 16 cm
Group exhibition konkret-sinnlich – Galerie SCHMALFUSS BERLIN – Zeitgenössische Kunst – Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien – ART at Berlin