Waldemar Zimbelmann
01 Jun - 21 Jul 2012
WALDEMAR ZIMBELMANN
1 June - 21 July 2012
We are pleased to present the second solo exhibition of the artist Waldemar Zimbelmann in our Karlsruhe gallery. Waldemar Zimbelmann ́ ́s paintings shift between painting and drawing, while the characteristics of drawing are of fundamental nature to his work. Sometimes using personal or anonymous photographic images as a point of departure, the artist devises a subtle, sensitive visual language that creates its subjects in an overlap of figuration and abstraction. Zimbelmann ́s paintings emerge from a process of overpainting, which is reflected in his themes as the passing of a situation.
At times only hinted at, in Waldemar Zimbelmann ́s paintings the silhouettes of people, animals, houses or landscapes lead to a conflation of shape, body, time and space, from which his surreal narratives emerge fragmentarily. Individual or group portraits of persons carrying out a silent (inter-) action in his compositions preside as shining and fading figures, their bodies address a shift between location and rootedness.
The texture of the painting and the three-dimensional paint application is critical to Zimbelmann ́s artistic process: Based on different layers of paint, which accrue in the process of overpainting, a superposition of color and color planes develops, from which the artist renders his visual motifs by uncovering parts of these layers. The linear elements, often sgraffito, are finely drawn, almost resembling woodcut hatching, and are juxtaposed with a vigorous, sometimes extensive coloring, which brings vibrancy into Zimbelmann ́s compositions.
In his new work, the artist is now increasingly focusing on portraits, which he creates primarily in small formats. Zimbelmann ́s paintings show figures, solo or as pairs, posing before houses in front of a door, a window or stairs: They suggest moments of looking out and in, but also interfaces, which mediate between a spatial and a mental interior and exterior. Elements of the paintings such as puddles, mirrors or shadows build on this aspect and seem almost like extensions of the bodies of the protagonists, addressing the viewer alone or - regarding the paintings in succession - collectively, with their wordless, but strongly expressive gaze.
Christina Irrgang; translation by Zoe Claire Miller
1 June - 21 July 2012
We are pleased to present the second solo exhibition of the artist Waldemar Zimbelmann in our Karlsruhe gallery. Waldemar Zimbelmann ́ ́s paintings shift between painting and drawing, while the characteristics of drawing are of fundamental nature to his work. Sometimes using personal or anonymous photographic images as a point of departure, the artist devises a subtle, sensitive visual language that creates its subjects in an overlap of figuration and abstraction. Zimbelmann ́s paintings emerge from a process of overpainting, which is reflected in his themes as the passing of a situation.
At times only hinted at, in Waldemar Zimbelmann ́s paintings the silhouettes of people, animals, houses or landscapes lead to a conflation of shape, body, time and space, from which his surreal narratives emerge fragmentarily. Individual or group portraits of persons carrying out a silent (inter-) action in his compositions preside as shining and fading figures, their bodies address a shift between location and rootedness.
The texture of the painting and the three-dimensional paint application is critical to Zimbelmann ́s artistic process: Based on different layers of paint, which accrue in the process of overpainting, a superposition of color and color planes develops, from which the artist renders his visual motifs by uncovering parts of these layers. The linear elements, often sgraffito, are finely drawn, almost resembling woodcut hatching, and are juxtaposed with a vigorous, sometimes extensive coloring, which brings vibrancy into Zimbelmann ́s compositions.
In his new work, the artist is now increasingly focusing on portraits, which he creates primarily in small formats. Zimbelmann ́s paintings show figures, solo or as pairs, posing before houses in front of a door, a window or stairs: They suggest moments of looking out and in, but also interfaces, which mediate between a spatial and a mental interior and exterior. Elements of the paintings such as puddles, mirrors or shadows build on this aspect and seem almost like extensions of the bodies of the protagonists, addressing the viewer alone or - regarding the paintings in succession - collectively, with their wordless, but strongly expressive gaze.
Christina Irrgang; translation by Zoe Claire Miller