Luise Unger
05 Sep - 03 Oct 2009
LUISE UNGER
The Karsten Greve Gallery is pleased to present the first one-man-show in France of the German artist Luise Unger. The show will be the opportunity to explore the development of her sculptural creation over the past twenty years and to exhibit the diversity of materials she uses.
Her first works, which were primarily installations of concerted materiality, were nevertheless comprised of highly sensitive materials. In what is called her “black” period, the artist combined materials like steel or wood with cotton and fluid and flexible elements like wax or rubber that adapt to the immovable form of the steel framework and complete it. Following this, Luise Unger continued to use steel objects and refined her installations by spreading ashes and adding wire. In her current work, Luise Unger uses crochet as a new technique, iron or steel wire becoming essential components of her pieces. While the first works seem to be contained and modelled, the later works are characterised by several layers of superimposed wires, full of density and yet transparent, inviting one to look into the interior of the work.
The exhibition is mainly devoted to recent works of which a certain number have been created especially for this exhibition. This has involved long hours of manual work weaving steel wires resulting in poetic structures that are often suspended. Like mobiles, they are cut through by the light and move with the slightest breeze. Luise Unger plays on the transitions between different states, interweaving forms into one another. The sculptures seem to change depending on the light that hits their surface and the changing glints of the metal at times sparkling, now silver. Her sculptures range from grey anthracite to dark black, at times tinted with copper or bluish colours.
The artist immerses herself in a creative process that results both in architectural or anthropomorphic shapes, but also in intangible silhouettes that give the illusion of black shadows. Whether they are suspended or placed on plinths, these hollow bodies allow us to explore their interiors. Several layers made of wire outline the passage from the interior to the exterior, giving the impression that the work is covered by a protective skin containing other forms. This transparency in the pieces due to their metallic mesh breaks the proximity of the outer skin, their interior becoming visible. But what one discovers is yet another surface. The invisible becomes apparent, and what is revealed becomes illusory.
By making an allusion to Oscar Wilde’s observation that “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible”, Luise Unger creates installations and sculptures that invite us to encounter her works in a different manner, through an understanding of the exterior and the interior, of what is visible and invisible at the same time.
Born in 1956, a graduate of the Art Academy of Düsseldorf, Luise Unger lives and works in Cologne. Her works have been exhibited notably in numerous galleries and museums in Cologne and Düsseldorf, and at the Kunstpalast (1999 – 2004) among others.
The Karsten Greve Gallery is pleased to present the first one-man-show in France of the German artist Luise Unger. The show will be the opportunity to explore the development of her sculptural creation over the past twenty years and to exhibit the diversity of materials she uses.
Her first works, which were primarily installations of concerted materiality, were nevertheless comprised of highly sensitive materials. In what is called her “black” period, the artist combined materials like steel or wood with cotton and fluid and flexible elements like wax or rubber that adapt to the immovable form of the steel framework and complete it. Following this, Luise Unger continued to use steel objects and refined her installations by spreading ashes and adding wire. In her current work, Luise Unger uses crochet as a new technique, iron or steel wire becoming essential components of her pieces. While the first works seem to be contained and modelled, the later works are characterised by several layers of superimposed wires, full of density and yet transparent, inviting one to look into the interior of the work.
The exhibition is mainly devoted to recent works of which a certain number have been created especially for this exhibition. This has involved long hours of manual work weaving steel wires resulting in poetic structures that are often suspended. Like mobiles, they are cut through by the light and move with the slightest breeze. Luise Unger plays on the transitions between different states, interweaving forms into one another. The sculptures seem to change depending on the light that hits their surface and the changing glints of the metal at times sparkling, now silver. Her sculptures range from grey anthracite to dark black, at times tinted with copper or bluish colours.
The artist immerses herself in a creative process that results both in architectural or anthropomorphic shapes, but also in intangible silhouettes that give the illusion of black shadows. Whether they are suspended or placed on plinths, these hollow bodies allow us to explore their interiors. Several layers made of wire outline the passage from the interior to the exterior, giving the impression that the work is covered by a protective skin containing other forms. This transparency in the pieces due to their metallic mesh breaks the proximity of the outer skin, their interior becoming visible. But what one discovers is yet another surface. The invisible becomes apparent, and what is revealed becomes illusory.
By making an allusion to Oscar Wilde’s observation that “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible”, Luise Unger creates installations and sculptures that invite us to encounter her works in a different manner, through an understanding of the exterior and the interior, of what is visible and invisible at the same time.
Born in 1956, a graduate of the Art Academy of Düsseldorf, Luise Unger lives and works in Cologne. Her works have been exhibited notably in numerous galleries and museums in Cologne and Düsseldorf, and at the Kunstpalast (1999 – 2004) among others.