Christoph Ruckhäberle
23 Nov 2007 - 12 Jan 2008
© Christoph Ruckhäberle
Liebigs Laboratorium Oder Meine Fünf Lieblingskünstler (Liebig’s Laboratory or My Five Favorite Artists (2007)
Oil on canvas
210 x 300 cm
Liebigs Laboratorium Oder Meine Fünf Lieblingskünstler (Liebig’s Laboratory or My Five Favorite Artists (2007)
Oil on canvas
210 x 300 cm
CHRISTOPH RUCKHÄBERLE
"Falsche Figuration"
November 23 2007 - January 12 2008
Galleri Nicolai Wallner is happy to present our third solo exhibition with German artist Christoph Ruckhäberle (born 1972).
Ruckhäberle's work represents a compositional jigsaw puzzle, each element an individually delineated shape filling a gap in the whole: L-shaped knees disjointedly connected to trapeze skirts, and tubular arms and legs unite square bodies - the individual elements locked together without a sense of grounded order. A rhythmic pattern of triangles between the juxtaposed limbs gives form and movement to the figures. This space in-between sums up a classic painterly paradox, how solid mass is only made possible by absence.
To the question of what the exhibition is about, the title of the exhibition Falsche Figuration gives some if not all of the clues. Ruckhäberle leads us down a road full of strange turns and blind alleys. The men and women of the paintings appear both fully formed and strangely flat. Embedded in the surface the figures are simultaneously pushed towards the viewer, a feature accentuated by backgrounds that are either of a solid colour or a mesmerizing array of patterns. A series of masks fill up this double position particularly well. Rather than giving away the faces behind, the eyes and mouths wide-open become part of the winding symmetric design of masks themselves. It is fake figuration not only in the sense that the artist creates impossible constellations but also questions a world teetering between pattern and reality.
With Falsche Figuration Ruckhäberle crosses a boundary from the narrative towards the pure iconic image. Brash, vivid colours replace earthly tones of before and cramped interiors give way to the open. Figures seem to have broken loose of their former bonds and now exist freely in ambigious space.
The works for the exhibition Falsche Figuration have been created in Copenhagen this summer in connection with an artist residence at Statens Værksteder, Gl. Dok.
"Falsche Figuration"
November 23 2007 - January 12 2008
Galleri Nicolai Wallner is happy to present our third solo exhibition with German artist Christoph Ruckhäberle (born 1972).
Ruckhäberle's work represents a compositional jigsaw puzzle, each element an individually delineated shape filling a gap in the whole: L-shaped knees disjointedly connected to trapeze skirts, and tubular arms and legs unite square bodies - the individual elements locked together without a sense of grounded order. A rhythmic pattern of triangles between the juxtaposed limbs gives form and movement to the figures. This space in-between sums up a classic painterly paradox, how solid mass is only made possible by absence.
To the question of what the exhibition is about, the title of the exhibition Falsche Figuration gives some if not all of the clues. Ruckhäberle leads us down a road full of strange turns and blind alleys. The men and women of the paintings appear both fully formed and strangely flat. Embedded in the surface the figures are simultaneously pushed towards the viewer, a feature accentuated by backgrounds that are either of a solid colour or a mesmerizing array of patterns. A series of masks fill up this double position particularly well. Rather than giving away the faces behind, the eyes and mouths wide-open become part of the winding symmetric design of masks themselves. It is fake figuration not only in the sense that the artist creates impossible constellations but also questions a world teetering between pattern and reality.
With Falsche Figuration Ruckhäberle crosses a boundary from the narrative towards the pure iconic image. Brash, vivid colours replace earthly tones of before and cramped interiors give way to the open. Figures seem to have broken loose of their former bonds and now exist freely in ambigious space.
The works for the exhibition Falsche Figuration have been created in Copenhagen this summer in connection with an artist residence at Statens Værksteder, Gl. Dok.