Team
08 Aug - 08 Sep 2006
TEAM
Florian Balze, Eva Berendes, Heiko Blankenstein, Rufus Kraus, Frank Maier, Stefan Mannel, Kim Nekarda, Lewin Quehl, Bernd Ribbeck, Claudia Wieser
TEAM is dedicated to one topic, which everyone is aware of, but which few ever address directly: around 85 per cent of all art school graduates have to take on jobs in addition to doing their artistic work. In this exhibition Arndt & Partner present ten artists who have accompanied and supported the gallery over recent years.
As diverse as their positions may be, what they have in common is the accent on a certain quality of craftmanship.
The wall pieces and installations of Florian Balze (born 1969, Augsburg, Germany) remind us of interior fixtures and decorative objects. Balze achieves a skillful combination of (artistic) craftmanship and contrasting materials, a calculated interplay of precise manufacture and amateurish
execution.
The underlying theme in Eva Berendes’ (born 1974, Bonn, Germany) two and three-dimensional works is the interweaving of organic and geometric abstraction. She employs materials such as wood, wool, plaster, brass and leather. Her formal language is reminiscent of works by the Russian AvantGarde, especially Suprematist paintings, as well as of textile and exhibition designs.
Heiko Blankenstein (born 1970, Rheydt, Germany) is working on large format drawings, executed with coloured crayons, pencils and ink. The motifs of his drawings range from pseudo-scientific aspects of cosmology, artificial nature and architecture, to historical figures or persons from the artist’s immediate environment, but always with a metaphorical slant.
Rufus Kraus’ (born 1970, Koblenz, Germany) wash drawings depict figures isolated in space or trapped within structures. They possess a comic-like character and concern themselves with questions of integration and exclusion in a multicultural society.
Frank Maier (born 1966, Stuttgart, Germany) employs the simplest materials, such as plaster, papier maché, wood, paint and string. With these materials the artist creates sculptures which protrude from the wall like excrescences or stick like lumps of clay on wooden slats.
Stefan Mannel’s (born 1976, Homburg/Saar, Germany) motifs arise from a fount of sagas and mythologies. His paintings are largely populated by animals which are consciously rendered unreal or gesturally expressive.
Kim Nekarda’s (born 1973, Gießen, Germany) paintings arise from the practice of collage in reverse: the individual pieces are joined together using Photoshop, then enlarged to a monumental scale by overhead projection onto a canvas, and reworked with traditional artistic tools such as brush and paint. His pictures are empty of figures but nevertheless contain a basic narrative structure.
Lewin Quehl’s (born 1974, Frankfurt / M., Germany) works hover between sculpture and installation, always with some gap or break or small, mostly subtle disruption to an otherwise spotless arrangement.
Bernd Ribbeck’s (born 1974, Cologne, Germany) works – mostly small format pictures which look like mandalas or are evocative of motifs from games boards – could well have their origin in Modern Art. They create pictorial spaces, which move between drawing and painting and open up the way to a spiritual dimension, as was also the intention with Suprematism.
Claudia Wieser (born 1973, Freilassing, Germany) is experimenting with various techniques such as collage, sculpture and drawing. In transforming and rupturing pre-existing visual and material structures, the artist creates new densely interwoven pictorial networks.
© Heiko Blankenstein, Chan Marshall in Giotto\'s Garage, 2006, color pencil, ball point pen and gesso on paper, framed 162 x 217 cm / 63.78 x 85.43 inch
Florian Balze, Eva Berendes, Heiko Blankenstein, Rufus Kraus, Frank Maier, Stefan Mannel, Kim Nekarda, Lewin Quehl, Bernd Ribbeck, Claudia Wieser
TEAM is dedicated to one topic, which everyone is aware of, but which few ever address directly: around 85 per cent of all art school graduates have to take on jobs in addition to doing their artistic work. In this exhibition Arndt & Partner present ten artists who have accompanied and supported the gallery over recent years.
As diverse as their positions may be, what they have in common is the accent on a certain quality of craftmanship.
The wall pieces and installations of Florian Balze (born 1969, Augsburg, Germany) remind us of interior fixtures and decorative objects. Balze achieves a skillful combination of (artistic) craftmanship and contrasting materials, a calculated interplay of precise manufacture and amateurish
execution.
The underlying theme in Eva Berendes’ (born 1974, Bonn, Germany) two and three-dimensional works is the interweaving of organic and geometric abstraction. She employs materials such as wood, wool, plaster, brass and leather. Her formal language is reminiscent of works by the Russian AvantGarde, especially Suprematist paintings, as well as of textile and exhibition designs.
Heiko Blankenstein (born 1970, Rheydt, Germany) is working on large format drawings, executed with coloured crayons, pencils and ink. The motifs of his drawings range from pseudo-scientific aspects of cosmology, artificial nature and architecture, to historical figures or persons from the artist’s immediate environment, but always with a metaphorical slant.
Rufus Kraus’ (born 1970, Koblenz, Germany) wash drawings depict figures isolated in space or trapped within structures. They possess a comic-like character and concern themselves with questions of integration and exclusion in a multicultural society.
Frank Maier (born 1966, Stuttgart, Germany) employs the simplest materials, such as plaster, papier maché, wood, paint and string. With these materials the artist creates sculptures which protrude from the wall like excrescences or stick like lumps of clay on wooden slats.
Stefan Mannel’s (born 1976, Homburg/Saar, Germany) motifs arise from a fount of sagas and mythologies. His paintings are largely populated by animals which are consciously rendered unreal or gesturally expressive.
Kim Nekarda’s (born 1973, Gießen, Germany) paintings arise from the practice of collage in reverse: the individual pieces are joined together using Photoshop, then enlarged to a monumental scale by overhead projection onto a canvas, and reworked with traditional artistic tools such as brush and paint. His pictures are empty of figures but nevertheless contain a basic narrative structure.
Lewin Quehl’s (born 1974, Frankfurt / M., Germany) works hover between sculpture and installation, always with some gap or break or small, mostly subtle disruption to an otherwise spotless arrangement.
Bernd Ribbeck’s (born 1974, Cologne, Germany) works – mostly small format pictures which look like mandalas or are evocative of motifs from games boards – could well have their origin in Modern Art. They create pictorial spaces, which move between drawing and painting and open up the way to a spiritual dimension, as was also the intention with Suprematism.
Claudia Wieser (born 1973, Freilassing, Germany) is experimenting with various techniques such as collage, sculpture and drawing. In transforming and rupturing pre-existing visual and material structures, the artist creates new densely interwoven pictorial networks.
© Heiko Blankenstein, Chan Marshall in Giotto\'s Garage, 2006, color pencil, ball point pen and gesso on paper, framed 162 x 217 cm / 63.78 x 85.43 inch