Aurel Scheibler

Stefan Löffelhardt

18 - 21 Sep 2014

© Stefan Löffelhardt
PAG Selbst k23, 2014
Graphite and aluminum foil on paper
40 x 40 cm / 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
abc - art berlin contemporary

STEFAN LÖFFELHARDT
18 - 21 September 2014

Berlin – For this year’s abc art berlin contemporary, Aurel Scheibler will show a solo presentation of drawings by the Düsseldorf-based artist Stefan Löffelhardt.
Löffelhardt’s work has its roots in sculpture, and this anchor is also reflected in the drawings that will be on view. In their physicality they bear clear reminiscences of his large landscape-installations, made of wrapping foil, garbage bags, aluminum, tinsel or glass that evolved into ship-sculptures and later into compact cloud objects. The drawings, which found their origin in small cloud sketches that Löffelhardt started in 2008, soon became large-format, sheet-covering depictions using layers of graphite, before they gradually morphed into reduced and concentrated object ideas.

This objective character however seems to continuously slide away as the viewer‘s eye detects a multitude of movements and structures and the appearance of concave and convex forms evokes thoughts and associations that bounce this way and that. It is exactly at this center between the concrete and the unconscious, midway between these two poles that Löffelhardt’s focus resides.
The fleeting, the floating and the skeptical are the seemingly diffuse parameters with which Löffelhardt creates his work. Doubt is permitted and contemplation becomes a way of gaining knowledge while the artist and his work question, over and over again, the possibility of a obtaining a secure and verifiable grasp on reality.

His approach is intuitive, haphazard, and coincidental. It is a process of slowly entering the work, randomly, aimlessly, so that bright/dark structures and directions gradually appear and shadows seem to arise out of concentrated patches of pencil. The visible is being explored, form is being analyzed but contrary to the process applied in classical landscape art, Löffelhardt’s works do not attempt to reflect ‘reality’ as it offers itself. Their drive and their source are the tracing of the inner landscape. As the artist moves further and further away from the object at hand and directs his gaze inward, the drawing becomes a notation of his innermost journey.

A publication will appear on the occasion of this presentation.

Stefan Löffelhardt (b. 1959) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Hans Ladner and the Art Academy in Dusseldorf with Günther Uecker. His work is represented in private and institutional collections in Germany and abroad. He lives and works in Dusseldorf.
 

Tags: Stefan Löffelhardt, Günther Uecker