ANJA SCHREY
01 Sep - 20 Oct 2007
Anja Schrey >Liegende< 2007
240 x 500 cm, crayon on paper
© FILIALE/Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf-Berlin
240 x 500 cm, crayon on paper
© FILIALE/Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf-Berlin
Anja Schrey >Stehende II< 2005
280 x 240 cm, crayon on paper
© FILIALE/Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf-Berlin
280 x 240 cm, crayon on paper
© FILIALE/Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf-Berlin
CONRADS/FILIALE Berlin presents ANJA SCHREY
Over the last five years Schrey has made a remarkable collection of works on paper, augmenting her drawings through photography and performance. In all cases, it is always Schrey - the artist - who is the focus. Though she appears as the ‘constant’ throughout, the means by which she arrives at her varying poses often involves the participation of other people. It is not unusual for Schrey to invite others to suggest the differing guises, gestures and very often the clothing that she should wear. This ‘collaboration’ as such, through staged photo-shoots, manifests itself in poses that seem unnatural, forced and ill at ease.
Schrey is distinctly aware of the tradition within which she works and the sometimes contested history of the female body in Twentieth Century art practice. However, her performances and drawings do not operate on the same ‘sensationalist’ level as her forbears – they are ‘slower’, seemingly more modest, psychological as opposed to physical. And despite the implied eroticism in some of the works, they remain distant, cold, troubled – they attract and they repel. For instance, Schrey never engages in direct eye contact with the viewer, instead she avoids her audience favouring to stare into a space beyond the margins of the drawing.
For Schrey, the drawing process acts as another layer of mediation and of distancing before the work is ‘re-presented’ back to the public. Drawing for Schrey signals a process of ‘re-clamation’ through which the artist seizes control and ownership once again of her image and of her self. It is a process of impressive skill and solitude. Alone in the studio, Schrey immaculately arranges her drawing table with hundreds of colour pencils all beautifully sharpened and fanned through the colours of the rainbow. It epitomises the precision and intent with which Schrey, through the act of drawing, almost ‘surgically’ reconstructs her self image.
Michael Stanley, Director, foreword catalog Anja Schrey Soloentertainer 2006
Milton Keynes Gallery
FILIALE Brunnenstr. 188, 10119 Berlin
www.filiale-berlin.de
www.,galerieconrads.de
for futher information: Helga Weckop-Conrads 49.172.3230720
Over the last five years Schrey has made a remarkable collection of works on paper, augmenting her drawings through photography and performance. In all cases, it is always Schrey - the artist - who is the focus. Though she appears as the ‘constant’ throughout, the means by which she arrives at her varying poses often involves the participation of other people. It is not unusual for Schrey to invite others to suggest the differing guises, gestures and very often the clothing that she should wear. This ‘collaboration’ as such, through staged photo-shoots, manifests itself in poses that seem unnatural, forced and ill at ease.
Schrey is distinctly aware of the tradition within which she works and the sometimes contested history of the female body in Twentieth Century art practice. However, her performances and drawings do not operate on the same ‘sensationalist’ level as her forbears – they are ‘slower’, seemingly more modest, psychological as opposed to physical. And despite the implied eroticism in some of the works, they remain distant, cold, troubled – they attract and they repel. For instance, Schrey never engages in direct eye contact with the viewer, instead she avoids her audience favouring to stare into a space beyond the margins of the drawing.
For Schrey, the drawing process acts as another layer of mediation and of distancing before the work is ‘re-presented’ back to the public. Drawing for Schrey signals a process of ‘re-clamation’ through which the artist seizes control and ownership once again of her image and of her self. It is a process of impressive skill and solitude. Alone in the studio, Schrey immaculately arranges her drawing table with hundreds of colour pencils all beautifully sharpened and fanned through the colours of the rainbow. It epitomises the precision and intent with which Schrey, through the act of drawing, almost ‘surgically’ reconstructs her self image.
Michael Stanley, Director, foreword catalog Anja Schrey Soloentertainer 2006
Milton Keynes Gallery
FILIALE Brunnenstr. 188, 10119 Berlin
www.filiale-berlin.de
www.,galerieconrads.de
for futher information: Helga Weckop-Conrads 49.172.3230720