Cinematic storyteller and American artist Fran Forman constructs visual narratives that articulate the deep loneliness that characterise contemporary society. The staged compositions - from different photographs of objects, locations and people - lay bare the paradox of the digital age: separation despite global interconnectedness. Drawing on Hopper’s social realism, the familiar settings within the photographs isolate their subjects, who themselves are surrounded by an air of fragility. Trapped in their own fantasies, the companionship and kinship they long for is just out of reach. 

Each of the photographs is a separate story, immediately personal. Subjects placed in uncertain settings are as elusive as the shadows that surround them, absorbed in their interior lives. The geometric play of light and shadows in the empty spaces suggests stability, refuge and a solid foundation. Despite the allusion to warmth, the subjects grapple with longing and lost kinship. Forman offers hope for escape in the form of portals: a lit window, a mirror, a door left ajar. These ‘escape hatches’ lead the way to reconnecting and forging new relationships in the turmoil of our daily lives. 

Forman’s position as part of the baby boomer generation brings a rich understanding of socio-political changes in society to ‘The Color of Absence’. With a degree in sociology and several years spent working as a therapist, Fran Forman has developed an acute psychological sensitivity for the crises that have been steadily gaining ground in America since the 1960s. In her bleak settings, all generations feel the personal effects of growing societal polarisation. Remarkably, the artist readily implements new technological advancements into her practice, with AI as another tool in her inventory.

BBA Gallery discovered Forman through the 2022 BBA Artist Prize shortlist. ‘The Color of Absence’ marks her first solo exhibition in Berlin, Germany.

ART MARKET BUDAPEST, established in 2011, is Central and Eastern Europe’s leading international art fair. Designed to give an emphasised presence to fresh and inspiring galleries and artists, BBA Gallery is joining the fair for the first time in 2023. ART MARKET BUDAPEST combines the progressive new generation of artist from the already established West with emerging regions. It includes exhibitors from over 40 countries and 5 continents, and welcomes over 30,000 international visitors through its doors.

During Berlin Art Week in September 2023, BBA Gallery will be presenting the Slovak artist Katarina Kudelova and her solo exhibition “Burning Bright in the Forest of the Night”. The title of the show is a direct reference to the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake from 1794 and its concept of opposition.

As the 1st Prize winner of the BBA Artist Prize 2022 group exhibition, Katarina Kudelova blew the jury away with her ceramic sculptures and firecracker-based performance pieces. Kudelova’s explosive practice addresses major themes of transience, death and the human-animal relationship. Dangerous, complex animal sculptures and large-scale installations conceal danger and reveal both contemporary and age-old tensions of the natural world. The upcoming solo exhibition will feature site-specific installations that integrate the gallery to create an immersive experience for viewers. Central to the works is the aforementioned dialogue of man and nature, specifically the role of man in the destruction of nature and ecosystems, symbolised through the use of volatile materials. 

Education is an important component of the exhibition, with the artworks bringing attention to current issues of environmental sustainability and human-driven dangers to wildlife.

From the BBA Photography Prize 2022 shortlist, BBA Gallery presents a solo exhibition by German fine-art photographer Markus Rock. “Chimera”, his latest series, takes the mythological Greek Chimera as its point of departure to explore human identity.

Photographed in 2019 at Uferstudios, Berlin, “Chimera'' plays on perception and imagination. An uncanny similarity of physique and extreme physical proximity blurs the distinction between the models Julia and Siri. Just as the Chimera is an incongruous assemblage of animals, the two women in the photographs contort around each other to become new and absurd creatures. Their pale, lithe bodies become unusual organisms, where body parts emerge from shadows and recesses of the flesh at unnatural angles, seemingly one. It is the viewer and their imagination that brings to life this grotesque Chimera of body parts. Upon closer inspection, the Chimera dissolves back into a recognisable collection of disconnected limbs.

Due to the fusion of choreography, dance and Renaissance lighting in “Chimera”, the bodies take centre-stage as objects involved in a dynamic relation. As the two women blend together, their bodies are conduits, creators and makers of the artwork. It -the body -becomes the primal source of artistic expression.

Markus Rock based the series on Julia’s choreographic work with her dance Siri. Prior to the shoot -documented in one take -  the women had been working for 2 ½ years on a project together. Their close professional and personal relationship makes possible their physical closeness. Intuitive and emotionally driven, “Chimera”’ is a testament to the transformative potential of human connections that goes beyond verbal communication.

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Deutsch

Aus der Shortlist des BBA Photography Prize 2022 präsentiert die BBA Gallery eine Einzelausstellung des deutschen Fotokünstlers Markus Rock. "Chimera", der Titel seiner jüngsten Serie, nimmt die mythologische griechische Chimäre als Ausgangspunkt, um die menschliche Identität zu erkunden. 

Fotografiert im Jahr 2019 in den Uferstudios, Berlin, spielt "Chimera" mit der Wahrnehmung und Vorstellungskraft. Eine unheimliche Ähnlichkeit des Körperbaus und extreme körperliche Nähe verwischen die Unterschiede zwischen den Modellen Julia und Siri. So wie die Chimäre eine inkongruente Ansammlung von Tieren ist, verformen sich die beiden Frauen auf den Fotografien zu neuen, absurden Kreaturen. Ihre blassen, geschmeidigen Körper werden zu ungewöhnlichen Organismen, bei denen Körperteile aus Schatten und Vertiefungen des Fleisches in unnatürlichen Winkeln hervortreten und scheinbar eins sind. Es sind die Betrachter und ihre Vorstellungskraft, die diese groteske Chimäre aus Körperteilen zum Leben erwecken. Bei näherer Betrachtung löst sich die Chimäre wieder in eine erkennbare Ansammlung von abgetrennten Gliedmaßen auf. 

Durch die Verschmelzung von Choreografie, Tanz und Renaissance-Beleuchtung in "Chimera" rücken die Körper als Objekte in den Mittelpunkt, die in eine dynamische Beziehung treten. Während die beiden Frauen miteinander verschmelzen, werden ihre Körper zu Trägern, Schöpfern und Machern des Kunstwerks. Er - der Körper - wird zur ursprünglichen Quelle des künstlerischen Ausdrucks. 

Markus Rock stützt die Serie auf Julias choreografische Arbeit mit ihrem Tanz Siri. Vor den Dreharbeiten - die in einem Take dokumentiert wurden - hatten die Frauen 2 ½ Jahre lang an einem gemeinsamen Projekt gearbeitet. Ihre enge berufliche und persönliche Beziehung macht ihre körperliche Nähe möglich. Intuitiv und gefühlsbetont ist "Chimera" ein Zeugnis für das transformative Potenzial menschlicher Beziehungen, das über die verbale Kommunikation hinausgeht.

‘Beyond Solitude’ is the debut solo show of artist Giulietta Coates at BBA Gallery, Berlin. The exhibition brings together works from the last 4 years. At the core of the monochrome landscape photographs is her relationship to the beauty of nature: its painful otherness and the impossibility of becoming one with it. The melancholic photographs express a longing for what is unreachable and hold a certain nostalgia for things to be otherwise.

Photographs taken during walks with her dog are observations of nature’s beauty, and intimate conversations with the immediate landscape that surrounds the artist. Individual motifs such as puddles, marshy fields and tree stumps stand for larger narratives of death, beauty, nostalgia and longing, all of which are interconnected in nature. Coates turned to photography as a solution to living in a remote region of France. The constraint of photography as a smooth, surface medium sets up a longing for what it represents yet delivers nothing. The artist uses photography to overcome the gulf between herself and the total otherness of nature’s beauty. Presented on the outermost surface of wooden structures, the fragmented photographs are perceptual puzzles where corners of the natural world appear to the viewer from odd angles. The rich layers of imagery speak of our relationship to nature and connect us to a consciousness outside of our own.

Giulietta Coates (*1959, England) has been living and working in Haute Provence, France for the past 15 years. She studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art and comes from a tradition of drawing and handling materials. Coates has been part of multiple group and solo exhibitions across Europe and her works from the past 40 years - woodcuts, drawings, paintings - are in collections around the world. BBA Gallery has been representing Giulietta Coates since 2016.

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Deutsch

Mit »Beyond Solitude« zeigt die BBA Gallery die erste Einzelausstellung von Giulietta Coates mit Arbeiten aus den letzten vier Jahren. Die monochromen Landschaftsfotografien thematisieren die Beziehung der Künstlerin zur Schönheit der Natur, zu ihrer als schmerzhaft empfundenen Andersartigkeit sowie zur Unmöglichkeit, mit ihr eins zu werden. Die melancholischen Aufnahmen drücken sowohl die Sehnsucht nach dem Unerreichbaren aus, wie auch Melancholie, begründet in dem Wunsch nach anderen Gegebenheiten.

Die Fotografien, entstanden bei einsamen Spaziergängen mit dem Hund, verweisen auf die Schönheit der Natur und repräsentieren die Zwiegespräche der Künstlerin mit der Landschaft, die sie unmittelbar umgibt. Einzelne Motive wie Wasserlachen, sumpfige Felder und Baumstümpfe stehen für weitergefasste Narrative über Tod, Schönheit und Sehnsucht, die sich in den Naturerscheinungen verbinden. Coates begann, das Medium der Fotografie zu nutzen, als sie ihr Leben in die abgelgegenen Haut Provence in Frankreich verlegte. Fotografie wird auf der glatten Oberfläche des Papiers reproduziert, was die Sehnsucht nach dem Abgebildeten weckt, dabei jedoch nichts Greifbares erschafft. Mit der Fotografie hat die Künstlerin ein passendes Medium gefunden, um die Kluft zwischen sich und der absoluten Andersartigkeit der Schönheit der Natur zu überwinden. Die fragmentierten Aufnahmen – teilweise ergänzt durch Holzstrukturen und somit konzeptionell um materielle Aspekte erweiteret –  stellen gleichsam in einer Verrätselung der Wahrnehmung die natürlichen Welt in ganz eigenen Perspektiven dar. Die dichten Bildkonstruktionen erzeugen eine Beziehung zur Andersartigkeit der natürlichen Welt und so ein erweitertes Bewusstsein, das individuelle Grenzen überwindet.

Giulietta Coates wurde 1959 in England geboren. Die Künstlerin lebt und arbeitet seit 15 Jahren in der Haute Provence, Frankreich. Sie verfogt – auch inspiriert durch ihr Studium der Druckgrafik am Royal College of Art – einen zeichnerischen, sinnlich-materiellen Ansatz. Coates hat ihre Arbeiten europaweit in zahlreichen Gruppen- und Einzelausstellungen ausgestellt. Ihre Werke der letzten vierzig Jahre – Holzschnitte, Zeichnungen und Gemälde – befinden sich in Sammlungen auf der ganzen Welt. Die BBA Gallery vertritt Giulietta Coates seit 2016.

‘Six Degrees of Copenhagen’ is an ongoing series that winner of the 2021 BBA Photography Prize, Jens Juul, has been developing for 10 years. Part documentation, part social examination, and part artistic portraiture, the harsh and unrelenting photographs highlight the beauty of the human condition by bringing the viewer into close acquaintance with the private lives of strangers, Jens Juul’s first solo exhibition in Berlin is part of the 10th European Month of Photography. EMOP generates visibility for photographers in Berlin, the EU, and globally.

The ongoing series is inspired by the six degrees of separation theory that states people are no more than six social connections apart. Jens Juul asks the strangers he photographs to recommend a friend, thus passing the baton. ‘Six Degrees of Copenhagen’ breaks social boundaries in two significant ways: when Juul approaches a stranger to ask whether he can photograph them, and when, in the private sphere of the individual’s home, he captures a singular vulnerable moment. Jens Juul’s portraits are a beautiful reminder of our shared humanity and are encapsulated in his new book.

Jens Juul (*1963, Denmark) has garnered international attention for his fervent style of portrait photography. He has won multiple international awards including the Magnum Photography Awards, the Sony World Photography Award in the portrait category,  International Photographer of the Year, and the 2021 BBA Photography Prize.

In further support, MPB, the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear, is the proud main sponsor of Jens Juul's exhibition "Six Degrees of Copenhagen". A unique series in which he breaks down barriers among strangers and connects people in a sustainable and intimate way.

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Deutsch

„Six Degrees of Copenhagen" –ist eine fortlaufende Serie, an der Jens Juul - ein Kopenhagener Fotograf – bereits seit über 10 Jahren arbeitet. Juul ging 2021 als Gewinner aus dem BBA-Fotopreis hervor. Seine dokumentarisch angehauchten Porträts sind ausdrucksstarke Sozialstudien aus den unterschiedlichsten Milieus, die er auf hoch ästhetische Weise einzufangen vermag. In seiner kunstvollen Schwarz-weiß-Porträtfotografie bringt Juul dem Betrachter die Verletzlichkeit seiner Protagonisten nahe. Aber auch ihren Stolz, ihre Stärke und vor allem ihre Würde. Dabei gewährt er seltene Einblicke in das Privatleben von Fremden.

Diese fortlaufende Serie ist inspiriert von der Theorie der sechs Grade der Trennung, die besagt, dass Menschen nicht mehr als sechs soziale Verbindungen voneinander entfernt sind. Jens Juul bittet die Fremden, die er fotografiert, einen Freund zu empfehlen und gibt so den Staffelstab weiter. Die Porträts von Jens Juul sind eine schöne Erinnerung an unsere gemeinsame Menschlichkeit. Dies ist Jens Juuls erste Einzelausstellung in Berlin und Teil des 10.European Month of Photography.

Jens Juul (*1963, Dänemark) hat mit seinem Stil der Porträtfotografie internationale Aufmerksamkeit erlangt und mehrere internationale Preise gewonnen, darunter die Magnum Photography Awards, den Sony World Photography Award in der Kategorie Porträt, International Photographer of the Year und den BBA Photography Prize 2021.

Darüber hinaus ist MPB, die weltweit größte Plattform für den Kauf, Verkauf und Handel mit gebrauchten Foto- und Videoausrüstungen, stolzer Hauptsponsor der Ausstellung "Six Degrees of Copenhagen" von Jens Juul. Eine einzigartige Serie, in der er Barrieren zwischen Fremden abbaut und Menschen auf eine nachhaltige und intime Weise miteinander verbindet

From February 3rd to 18th 2023, 60 carefully selected photographers will be showcasing their works at BBA Gallery, Berlin for the One Shot Award Exhibition. Of these 60, 10 will be physically displayed and 50 will be shown on a large digital display. The winner will receive a cash prize of €500 and online promotion to support their professional practice and endeavours.

Established to give industry accessibility to aspiring photographers and an opportunity to build their portfolio, the One Shot Award looks beyond prior photography experience. Instead, the Award places merit on a photographer’s capability to communicate a unique vision. Technical expertise matters less than the crucial values of storytelling, visual concepts, creative ideas, abstraction and artistic sensibilities. The One Shot Award showcases the photographers currently contributing a fresh perspective to contemporary photography. 

All selected works will be shown at BBA Gallery, Köpenicker Straße 96, 10676, Berlin

Throughout history, art editions have been a means to utilise the power of image repetition for greater accessibility and availability. Now more than ever, it is imperative to provide the public with affordable contemporary art pieces. With this aim, this holiday season BBA presents BBA Editions, a group exhibition featuring a wide variety of artists represented by the gallery including some works from our previous Photography and Artist prize competitions.

Editions have a rich global history with engraving in Europe and 13th century traditional woodcut printmaking in Japan and Asia. In response to the rising prominence of print mass-media in the 20th Century, many artists such as the German expressionists Ludwig Kirschner and Emil Nolde re-appropriated printmaking techniques to exert agency over the distribution and value of their works. To this day, print editions continue to be a prominent medium in the art world, as a crossroads between classic technique and contemporary accessibility. 

Contemporary editions have evolved from traditional printmaking to encompass a wide range of formats including photography. BBA Editions brings together all kinds of practices such as painting, sculptures, photography, digital art and more, to create a diverse assemblage of works that promote accessibility within the art world. People from all walks of life create art under a diverse human experience. It follows that the enriching opportunity to own a unique piece of art should be openly available.

Single works can often feel costly for first time buyers. Editions with lower price points bridge this gap while also retaining the authenticity of the works. Each piece belonging to an edition carries within itself traces of the artist’s peculiarity and character.  We want to inspire the next generation of collectors by celebrating the creatives of tomorrow. 

The editions are readily available to purchase in person at the gallery. To foster accessibility in the art market, BBA is soon launching a brand new online store through which the public can purchase works from editions. Editions provide the opportunity for a special Christmas gift for your art lover friends and family; with artworks that are both compact and affordable.

Artists
Kristoffer Axén, Rómulo Celdrán, Giulietta Coates, Mario Ermoli, Vincent van Gaalen, Rhys Himsworth, Chirag Jindal, Renata Kudlacek, Ming Lu, Tobias Molitor, Kaleef Oladele Lawal, Mark Peterman, Susanne Piotter, Vishal Shah, Martin Stranka, Heiko Tiemann, Olga Wagemans, Diana Wolzak.

Artists
Renata Kudlacek
Rhys Himsworth

This year, BBA Gallery is delighted to be part of ARTMUC 2022 autumn edition - Bavaria’s largest art fair. Showcasing contemporary works, ArtMuc comprises over 250 artists working across a range of mediums from painting, sculpture, 3D pieces, photography and more. 

In a diverse programme offering insight into the growing German art market, BBA will exhibit the works of Berlin-based artists Rhys Himsworth and Gallery Director Renata Kudlacek whose central themes of nature subvert a linear perception of time.

Both mixed media artists, Himsworth and Kudlacek unravel the cultural significance of nature and re-interpret the historical significance from a contemporary angle. The romantic, dream-like works of landscapes and flowers subtly reference consumerist excess and fast-moving, mass-production. Himsworth sources and repurposes disused electronic waste which provide the surface over which a self-developed UV inkjet printer prints stock photography landscapes. Re-connects materials with their original locations. Resembling late Northern European Baroque with autumnal tones, Kudlacek’s fine art prints and hand-made screen-prints depict flora and fauna on the beautiful point of decay and echo the rapid consumption of nature.

BBA Gallery is pleased to present "Rómulo Celdrán: Digital Tenebrism", the first solo exhibition of the exceptional Spanish artist in Berlin. With his latest series of hyper-realistic paintings “Digital Tenebrism” (2020-now) Celdrán explores the Baroque tradition. The Tenebrists are known for their dramatic chiaroscuro painting. Deeply impressed by the paintings of the seventeenth century, Celdrán creates scenes inspired by Caravaggio, Ribera and Zurbarán. Instead of candlelight, however, the scenes in Celdrán's paintings are lit only by mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, which are checked by the figures in the darkness of their domestic surroundings. Where silence pervades the unlit areas, the theatrical darkness in "Digital Tenebrism" leaves room for the viewer's own imagination. In the artist's words, "The darkness was no longer scary for me. It becomes an intimate space for meditation and reflection."

Completing the exhibition are the latest hyper-realistic sculptures from the HI-RES body of works, a series of enlarged household gloves called SOLID. Using 3D computer modelling, HI-RES explores the relationships between the art object, which takes visible reality as a reference point, and the boundaries of veracity between observable reality, art and science. By simulating a household glove, SOLID's verisimilitude erases the Platonic distinction between original and copy.

Rómulo Celdrán (*1973, Spain) is an internationally recognised artist in the fields of painting, sculpture and drawing. He had his first exhibition at the age of 16 and managed to consolidate his career as a self-taught artist, with excellent execution and attention to detail. His high level of sophistication has led to his presence at leading fairs (SCOPE, ARCO, Art Cologne) and in important collections (Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Artium, CA2M, Museum Art Plus, Biblioteca Nacional). Since the groundbreaking exhibition 'Realism: The Adventure of Reality' at Kunsthalle München (2010), Celdrán has continued his negotiation with truthful visual representation. Earlier this year, Forbes magazine named Celdrán as one of eight Spanish artists whose work is currently rapidly increasing in value. Celdrán came to the attention of BBA Gallery through his participation in the Artist Prize founded by the gallery.

Die BBA Gallery freut sich, mit "Rómulo Celdrán: Digital Tenebrism", die erste Einzelausstellung des spanischen Ausnahme-Künstlers in Berlin zu präsentieren. Mit seiner jüngsten Gemäldeserie “Digital Tenebrism” (2020- jetzt) setzt sich Celdrán mit der barocken Tradition auseinander. Die Tenebristen sind für ihre dramatische Hell-Dunkel-Malerei bekannt. Tief beeindruckt von den barocken Gemälden des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, schafft Celdrán Szenen angelehnt an Caravaggio, Ribera und Zurbarán. Anstelle von Kerzenlicht werden die Szenen in Celdráns Gemälden jedoch lediglich durch mobile Geräte wie Smartphone oder Tablet beleuchtet, das von den Figuren in der Dunkelheit ihrer häuslichen Umgebung überprüft wird. Wo die Stille die unbeleuchteten Bereiche durchdringt, lässt die theatralische Dunkelheit in "Digital Tenebrism" Raum für die eigene Vorstellungskraft. Mit den Worten des Künstlers: "Die Dunkelheit war für mich nicht mehr unheimlich. Sie wird zu einem intimen Raum für Meditation und Reflexion."

Komplettiert wird die Ausstellung durch die neuesten hyper-realistischen Skulpturen der Werkgruppe HI-RES, einer Serie von vergrößerten Haushaltshandschuhen namens SOLID. Mittels 3D-Computermodellierung untersucht HI-RES die Beziehungen zwischen dem Kunstobjekt, das die sichtbare Realität als Bezugspunkt nimmt, und den Grenzen der Wahrhaftigkeit zwischen der beobachtbaren Realität, der Kunst und der Wissenschaft. Mit der cleveren Simulation eines Haushaltshandschuhs hebt die Wahrhaftigkeit von SOLID die platonische Unterscheidung zwischen Original und Kopie auf.

Rómulo Celdrán (*1973, Spanien) ist ein international anerkannter Künstler in den Bereichen Malerei, Skulptur und Zeichnung. Seine erste Ausstellung hatte er bereits im Alter von 16 Jahren und es gelang ihm, seine Karriere als Autodidakt zu konsolidieren, und zwar mit hervorragender Ausführung und Detailgenauigkeit. Sein hohes Niveau hat dazu geführt, dass er auf den führenden Messen (SCOPE, ARCO, Art Cologne) und in wichtigen Sammlungen (Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Artium, CA2M, Museum Art Plus, Biblioteca Nacional) vertreten ist. Seit der bahnbrechenden Ausstellung 'Realism: The Adventure of Reality" in der Kunsthalle München (2010) setzt Celdrán seine Verhandlung mit wahrheitsgetreuer visueller Darstellung fort. Das Forbes Magazin hat Celdrán zu Beginn diesen Jahres als einen von acht spanischen Künstlern benannt, deren Werk derzeit rasant an Wert gewinnt. Die BBA Gallery wurde auf Celdrán durch seine Teilnahme an dem von der Galerie gegründeten Kunstpreis aufmerksam.

Outer Spaces at BBA Gallery is an overview of Olivia Lennon’s exploration into the cosmos. The exhibition is compiled of varied watercolour paintings, labour-intensively painted by hand with fine sable brushes, specialist interference watercolours with an exactitude that resembles digital printing. These artworks are informed by intensive research, inspired by the artist’s natural curiosity with historical ideas and philosophical concepts, which she then translates into meticulous opalescent illustrations. Whether navigating interstellar spaces, mapping the crossing of geographical borders or visualising the invisible flow of microscopic miasmas, Lennon’s work establishes new perspectives of space on a macro- as well as on a microscopic level.

Border stone

By geographical accident, the majority of the marble quarried in Europe comes from those same areas along the E.U’s Mediterranean border (the most deadly border in the world) where unknown numbers of people have attempted to flee war, famine and persecution in Africa and the Middle East. This series of watercolour paintings critiques contemporary European external border practices through the combination of work titles and visual signifiers of obstruction, identity, fascist aesthetics and surveillance. ‘Borderstone’ depicts barricades of marble - the literal ‘stuff-of-this-place’- constructed in order to obstruct the entry of those who are seen as ‘not-of-this-place’. 

Since Greco-Roman times marble sculpture has been a signifier of European cultural history and identity, and in antiquity the marble was mined from quarries by slave labourers to build palaces and the statues of empires. In the enlightenment period antique statues became increasingly associated with ideas of race science, not least because the varied skin tone pigments on ancient marble figurative sculptures had worn away. 

This later culminated in the 20th C. fascist regimes’ architectural and artistic expressions of racial purity and supremacy in the form white toned marble figures. The fact that some refugee camps are situated in marble quarries, where the mourning-work of hewing gravestones takes place, deepens this relationship further. In using the language of marble, ‘Borderstone' loosely references these ideas as being the ideological kernel behind the increasingly inhumane treatment of mostly brown asylum seekers long Europes southern border. The title of each work raises questions around perceptions of the ‘other’, opaque bureaucratic structures, the right to citizenship, militarised borders, the nature of memorialisation, and the E.U.’s intention to construct a completely impervious border.

Night Air

Stemming from research into our former understanding of airborne disease, ‘Night Air’ presents an imagined topography of dangerous air. The title is borrowed from the outmoded belief that air at night releases deadly miasmas causing cholera, typhoid, malaria, influenza and pneumonic plague.

The base image for each work is printed using the Japanese suminagashi technique. Ink and oxgall are floated on the surface of water, and gently blown, from which the print on paper is pulled. Curlicues of ink are painted over in colour shifting watercolours, and mirrored vertically to create symmetrical designs reminiscent of both body parts and tendrils of poisonous air polluting a space.

The works are displayed in frames modified to resemble fresh lead solder. Two of the paintings, ‘Gnasher’ and ‘Poison Eater’ have necklaces of upper or lower teeth hung from the bottom edge of frames. The inferred mandible hangs loose, the mouth is open, allowing pneumas and miasmas to permeate the boundary between the interior of the breather and the exterior, and back again. ‘Night Air’ makes the invisible threat visible - we are in danger, and ourselves, dangerous.

Outer Spaces in der BBA Gallery ist ein Überblick über Olivia Lennons Erkundung des Kosmos. Die Ausstellung zeigt verschiedene Aquarelle, die in mühevoller Handarbeit mit feinen Zobelpinseln gemalt wurden, mit einer Genauigkeit, die an Digitaldruck erinnert. Diese Kunstwerke beruhen auf intensiven Recherchen, inspiriert vom Interesse der Künstlerin an historischen Ideen und philosophischen Konzepten, die sie in akribische, schimmernde Illustrationen umsetzt. Ob sie durch interstellare Räume navigiert, das Überschreiten geografischer Grenzen kartografiert oder den unsichtbaren Fluss mikroskopischer Miasmen visualisiert, Lennons Arbeiten eröffnen neue Perspektiven auf den Raum, sowohl auf makro- als auch auf mikroskopischer Ebene.

Die Ausstellung vereint Arbeiten aus den folgenden Serien:

Cosmodrome

“Cosmodrome" bietet ein dynamisches Modell für die Epistemologie des Kosmos. Diese Vinyl- und Aquarellbilder werden sorgfältig von Hand mit feinen Zobelpinseln gemalt, manchmal mit nur einem oder zwei Haaren. Die meisten der von Lennon verwendeten Aquarelle sind aus Interferenzpigmenten hergestellt. Diese Pigmente enthalten keine Farbe im üblichen Sinne, da es sich um Körner des lichtdurchlässigen Minerals Mica handelt, die dünn mit unterschiedlich dickem Titanweiß galvanisiert sind. Die Dicke des Titans bestimmt den Brechungswinkel des Lichts über der Farbe, wodurch die optische Täuschung der Farbe entsteht. 

Dieses Verfahren, Farbe mit Licht zu malen, verweist auf eine Aussage von John Ruskin aus dem Jahr 1884: "Licht ist ebenso sehr die Ordnung der Intelligenz wie die Ordnung des Sehens". Dieser Gedanke prägt einen Großteil von Lennons Untersuchungen über die historische und zeitgenössische "Ordnung" des Wissens über das Universum. Jedes von Lennons Gemälden zeigt eine andere Facette der Beobachtung oder Spekulation über die Funktionsweise von Zeit, Telemetrie, Raum und Materie. Lennons Arbeit ist geprägt von den philosophischen Argumenten von Heraklit und Parmenides, den kosmologischen Schriften von Italo Calvino, der Telemetrie von Satelliten und den widersprüchlichen Theorien der Teilchenphysik.

Die Analyse dessen, was wir über das Universum sehen oder denken, verrät viel über die menschliche Psychologie: im Wesentlichen, ob wir glauben, dass das Universum von Natur aus geordnet oder chaotisch ist. Häufig werden geordnete Ansichten über den Kosmos im Laufe der Geschichte aufgebaut und dann durch unintuitive Theorien und neue Entdeckungen wieder aufgelöst. Das geozentrische Sonnensystem wird durch das heliozentrische ersetzt. Die Newtonsche Physik wird durch die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie und dann durch die Quantenphysik ersetzt. Allumfassende Wissensmodelle werden in diesem Paradigma durch konkurrierende chaotische Details dekonstruiert, die dann wiederum neue geordnete Prinzipien begründen.

Zero

Eine Kleinsche Flasche ist eine theoretische 4-dimensionale kontinuierliche Oberfläche, die sowohl ein Inneres als auch ein Äußeres darstellt, aber keine Grenze zwischen den beiden hat. Im weiteren Sinne hat sie kein Volumen, enthält aber auch das gesamte Universum - sie ist nichts und alles zugleich. Lennon hat Raster gemalt, die über Diagramme von Kleinschen Flaschen projiziert wurden, als Analogie für die Versuche der Künstler, diese unmögliche Form zu quantifizieren und zu verstehen.

Jedes Werk hat eine irrationale Gleichung als Titel. Die Titel enthalten sowohl das Wort "Null" als auch den Namen des vorsokratischen Philosophen "Zeno", der vor allem für seine Schriften über Paradoxien und irrationale Zahlen bekannt ist.

Im Profil ähnelt die Kleinsche Flasche einer Lemniskate ( ∞ ) und von unten einer Null. 0 und ∞ stehen sowohl für die teilbaren als auch für die akkumulativen Aspekte der Unendlichkeit. Diese beiden Zahlen und die Kleinsche Flasche verhalten sich wie die Ouroboros-Schlange, die sich ständig selbst auffrisst. 0 und ∞ sind weder multiplizierbar noch teilbar (z. B. 0 x 1 = 0 oder ∞ / 2 = ∞) wie andere Zahlen, und sie sind so selbstreferentiell und unendlich regressiv, dass man sie als Grenze der Wahrnehmung betrachten könnte.

Atlas

Der Kartograph Gerardus Mercator aus dem 16. Jahrhundert verwendete das Wort "Atlas" erstmals in der geographischen Disziplin, um eine These über die Entstehung, Geschichte und Beschreibung des gesamten Universums zu bezeichnen. “Atlas" zeigt zwei Gemälde, die verzerrte elliptische Projektionen des kosmischen Mikrowellenhintergrunds in der Mercator-Projektion darstellen. Diese Bilder gehen von der topografischen Unmöglichkeit aus, eine Karte zu entwerfen, die die Gesamtheit einer Vielfalt umfasst; sei es die flach gemachte Erdkugel oder die Aufzeichnung von Zeit und Entfernung, die in der CMB-Karte des Urknalls beschrieben wird. Die Darstellung des Urknalls in der gleichen Mercator-Projektion, in der auch die Erde oft abgebildet ist, regt den Betrachter dazu an, zwischen der Geschichte der Navigation auf der Erde und der Möglichkeit menschlicher Unternehmungen bis an den Rand des Universums zu gleiten. Werden wir die interstellare Erkundung auf die gleiche Weise angehen wie die interkontinentale? Der mythologische Atlas trug die Erde auf seinen Schultern, und wenn wir in den Weltraum vordringen, verlagert sich das Gewicht des Universums auf unsere Schultern.

Borderstone

Der geografische Zufall will es, dass der Großteil des in Europa abgebauten Marmors aus denselben Gebieten entlang der EU-Mittelmeergrenze stammt (der tödlichsten Grenze der Welt), an der eine unbekannte Zahl von Menschen versucht hat, vor Krieg, Hunger und Verfolgung in Afrika und im Nahen Osten zu fliehen. Diese Serie von Aquarellbildern kritisiert die zeitgenössischen Praktiken an den europäischen Außengrenzen durch die Kombination von Werktiteln und visuellen Signifikanten von Blockade, Identität, faschistischer Ästhetik und Überwachung. “Borderstone" zeigt Barrikaden aus Marmor - dem buchstäblichen "Zeug von diesem Ort" -, die errichtet wurden, um denjenigen den Zugang zu versperren, die als "nicht von diesem Ort" angesehen werden. 

Seit der griechisch-römischen Zeit ist die Marmorskulptur ein Zeichen für die europäische Kulturgeschichte und Identität, und in der Antike wurde der Marmor von Sklavenarbeitern in Steinbrüchen abgebaut, um Paläste und Statuen für Reiche zu errichten. Im Zeitalter der Aufklärung wurden antike Statuen zunehmend mit Ideen der Rassenkunde in Verbindung gebracht, nicht zuletzt, weil sich die verschiedenen Hautfarbenpigmente auf den antiken figurativen Marmorskulpturen abgenutzt hatten. 

Dies kulminierte später in den architektonischen und künstlerischen Äußerungen der faschistischen Regime des 20. Jahrhunderts über rassische Reinheit und Vorherrschaft in Form von weiß getönten Marmorfiguren. Die Tatsache, dass sich einige Flüchtlingslager in Marmorsteinbrüchen befinden, in denen die Trauerarbeit, das Hauen von Grabsteinen, stattfindet, vertieft diese Beziehung noch. Durch die Verwendung der Sprache des Marmors verweist "Borderstone" lose auf diese Ideen als ideologischen Kern hinter der zunehmend unmenschlichen Behandlung der meist Asylbewerber an der Südgrenze Europas. Der Titel jeder Arbeit wirft Fragen zur Wahrnehmung des "Anderen", zu undurchsichtigen bürokratischen Strukturen, zum Recht auf Staatsbürgerschaft, zu militarisierten Grenzen, zum Wesen des Gedenkens und zur Absicht der EU, eine völlig undurchlässige Grenze zu errichten, auf.

Night Air

Ausgehend von der Erforschung unseres früheren Verständnisses von durch die Luft übertragenen Krankheiten stellt "Night Air" eine imaginäre Topografie der gefährlichen Luft dar. Der Titel ist dem überholten Glauben entlehnt, dass die Luft in der Nacht tödliche Miasmen freisetzt, die Cholera, Typhus, Malaria, Grippe und Lungenpest verursachen.

Das Grundbild für jedes Werk wird in der japanischen Suminagashi-Technik gedruckt. Tinte und Oxygall werden auf der Wasseroberfläche schwimmend aufgetragen und sanft geblasen, von wo aus der Druck auf Papier gezogen wird. Die Tuschewellen werden mit farblich wechselnden Aquarellfarben übermalt und vertikal gespiegelt, so dass symmetrische Muster entstehen, die sowohl an Körperteile als auch an Ranken giftiger Luft erinnern, die einen Raum verschmutzen.

Die Werke sind in Rahmen ausgestellt, die so modifiziert sind, dass sie frischem Bleilot ähneln. Zwei der Gemälde, "Gnasher" und "Poison Eater", haben Halsketten aus oberen oder unteren Zähnen, die am unteren Rand der Rahmen hängen. Der angedeutete Unterkiefer hängt lose herunter, der Mund ist offen, so dass Lungen und Miasmen die Grenze zwischen dem Inneren des Atmenden und dem Äußeren und wieder zurück durchdringen können. “Night Air" macht die unsichtbare Bedrohung sichtbar - wir sind in Gefahr, und wir selbst sind gefährlich.

The photographers shortlisted for the BBA Photography Prize 2021 convinced the public with the talent, creativity and diversity reflected by their artworks. From socio-critical landscape photographies merging urban habitats and landscapes by the German photographer Andreas Kremer, over conceptual photography questioning domestic violence by French photographer and architect Camille Gharbi, to Russian-born Photographer Kristina Varaksina, whose strongly symbolic work is an exploration of the psyche of women. One artist particularly impressed the jury & the viewers due to his work’s simultaneous harshness and vulnerability: Danish photographer Jens Juul won the 1st prize with his black and white photo series „Six degrees of Copenhagen“. 

Now in its 4th consecutive year, the BBA Photography Prize honours talented photographers. Together with an international jury, BBA Gallery has selected 24 photographers for the shortlist, whose works were shown in a joint exhibition in the Kühlhaus Berlin from November 26 - December 12 2021.

Due to the enormous success and positive feedback we have received for this exhibition, we have decided to now showcase an essential selection of works again at our gallery.

Included are works by the following photographers:

1st prize: Jens Juul, Denmark
2nd prize: Camille Gharbi, France / Dirk Hardy, Netherlands
3rd prize: Kristina Varaksina, United Kingdom
People's Choice Award: Richard Tuschman, United States

Andreas Kremer, Germany
Andreas Rost, Germany
Astrid Reischwitz, United States/Germany
Bella von Einsiedel, Germany
Catherine Panebianco, United States
Diana Cheren Nygren, United States
Frank Herfort, Russia/Germany
Gregg Segal, United States
Hugh Kretschmer, United States
Julia SH, United States
Mieke Douglas, United Kingdom
Nicky Hamilton, United Kingdom
Offer Goldfarb, Israel
Renata Dutrée, The Netherlands
Viktoria Sorochinski, Canada/Germany

Works by the following photographers are currently on show at the lobby of the Aletto Hotel Potsdamer Platz, where they can be visited daily.
Click here for more information.

Julia Fullerton Batten, United Kingdom
Kristina Varaksina, United Kingdom
Chloe Meynier, United States
Kriss Munsya, Canada
Serena Dzenis, Iceland
Miloš Nejezchleb, Czech Republic

The unfinished and the occasional madness of architectural language find a home in Susanne Piotter’s sculptures and prints. The Berlin artist, with a background in graphic and media design and a degree in stage design from the Maastricht Art Academy, creates exciting objects and imagery steeped in references to architecture.

Her small-format concrete sculptures from the “Artefacts” series consist of individually cast parts, mostly two or three elements, which the artist combines together following the principle of trial and error. Piotter designs her objects by making molds from different materials. She pours these negative forms with the material concrete, and the result is then the positive form. She then discovers spatial solutions by trying out possible combinations of positive forms. She is guided by her fascination for brutalist buildings and the unfinished. By combining solid parts and filigree transitions, she sometimes creates an impression of flawedness in her objects, which resemble building site ruins; they were never finished and now they are. Many of the sculptures can be set up in at least two different ways, providing multiple perspectives on the object, made possible by the object itself. The partial colour design of the sculptures plays with the visible and the invisible, and illustrates the multi-dimensionality of the work.

“Repetitive Structures” - the three-dimensional wall pieces in the series are also made from concrete. In the designs, Piotter combines such diverse influences as the infinite patterns of Islamic ornamentation, textile designs from the Bauhaus, or the systematics of urban forms such as motorway junctions or urban pathways. The works show an interplay of different disciplines, a multidisciplinary creativity in which everything is related to everything. The soft design language is combined with the hard material, design and textile art of architecture; the ephemeral with the permanent. 

The prints in the “Lines & Planes” series show rhythmically structured lines and surfaces that are reminiscent of structured facades. The screen prints on velour paper exert a haptic stimulus, which reinforces the impression of surface quality and structured facades. The exhibition shows works that have all emerged from a playful and yet thoroughly methodical approach to finding forms.

Das Unfertige sowie der bisweilen auftretende Wahnwitz der Architektursprache finden ein Zuhause in Susanne Piotters Skulpturen und Druckgrafiken. Die Berliner Künstlerin mit Ausbildungshintergrund Grafik-, Mediendesign und einem Bühnenbildstudium an der Kunstakademie Maastricht/NL kreiert spannungsvolle Objekte und Bildwelten mit Architekturbezug. 

Ihre kleinformatigen Betonskulpturen der Serie “Artefakte” bestehen aus gegossenen Einzelteilen, meist 2 oder 3 Elementen, die von der Künstlerin dem Prinzip von Versuch und Irrtum folgend zusammengesetzt werden. Ihre Objekte entwirft Piotter, indem sie Gussformen aus unterschiedlichen Materialien herstellt. Diese Negativformen giesst sie mit dem Material Beton aus, das Ergebnis stellt dann die Positivform dar. Räumliche Lösungen findet Piotter durch Ausprobieren von Kombinationsmöglichkeiten einzelner Positive. Leiten lässt sie sich dabei von ihrer Faszination für brutalistische Gebäude und für das Unfertige. Die Kombination von massiven Teilen und filigranen Übergängen erzeugt in ihren Objekten bisweilen einen Eindruck der Fehlerhaftigkeit. Ihre Objekte ähneln Bauruinen – sie waren nie fertig und sind es nun doch. Viele der Skulpturen kann man auf mindestens 2 verschiedene Weisen aufstellen. Unterschiedliche Sichtweisen auf das Objekt werden so von diesem selbst ermöglicht. Die partielle Farbgestaltung der Skulpturen durch die Künstlerin spielt mit dem Sicht- und dem Unsichtbaren und verdeutlicht die Mehrdimensionalität der Arbeiten.

Ebenfalls aus dem Werkstoff Beton bestehen die dreidimensionalen Wandarbeiten der Serie “Repetitive Strukturen”. In den Entwürfen verknüpft Piotter so unterschiedliche Einflüsse wie die unendlichen Muster der islamischen Ornamentik, textile Entwürfe des Bauhaus’ oder die Systematik von städtebaulichen Formen wie Autobahnkreuzen oder urbanen Wegeführungen. Die Arbeiten stehen für eine multidisziplinäre Kreativität, in der alles mit allem zusammenhängt. Die weiche Formensprache vereint sich mit dem harten Material, Grafikdesign mit Architektur, das Vergängliche mit dem Beständigen.

Die Druckgrafiken der Serie “Lines & Planes” zeigen rhythmisch strukturierte Linien und Flächen, die an gegliederte Fassaden erinnern. Die Siebdrucke auf Velourspapier üben einen haptischen Reiz aus, welcher den Eindruck der Oberflächenhaftigkeit und strukturierten Fassaden noch verstärkt.

Die Ausstellung zeigt Arbeiten, die allesamt aus einem spielerischen, sich langsam herantastenden und dennoch durchaus methodischen Ansatz der Formenfindung heraus entstanden sind.

Curated by Giulietta Coates

This is the first solo show of Renata Kudlacek at the BBA Gallery. Born in the Czech Republic, Kudlacek comes from a Catholic family with roots in the old Eastern Europe. The different cultural histories of East and West, as well as the confrontation between faith and reason, informs all of her work. Her exquisite fine art prints and hand-made screen-prints combine the artist’s own photographs and drawings, made to simulate old engravings or paintings of flora and fauna, with original historical scientific drawings. The work explores the age-old story of our expulsion from the Garden of Eden in light of the scientific knowledge through which we now understand life, death and dreams of immortality.

Glossy dark flowers, butterflies with their ghosts and shadows, snakes, and ambiguous natural forms tumble across the paper, crowd the picture plane, or spill over frames which are unable to contain them. The forms are flamboyant and excessive, yet the petals are aged and curling and the colours autumnal. What is abundant and alive is on the point of decay.

Rendered in a late Northern European Baroque style, these prints are profoundly contemporary. Historical dilemmas are joined to current ones through form and content. The circular Renaissance Tondo, symbolizing birth, life and eternity, evokes the petrie dish or the view through a microscope. The notorious Tulipmania of 17th century Holland has sinister echoes in our own time of consumerist excess and pending collapse. The work hints that the promise of the Garden of Eden, like the promise of consumerism, is an illusion.

There is something manic in the way the artist gathers together her flowers and butterflies and spills them out before us, an abundance of life on the brink of death, forewarning, perhaps, of the ecological disasters we face. Melancholy and loss permeates these powerful images. They are full of tenderness too, and the longing for wholeness and the ideal which lies at the heart of the myth of Eden. Ultimately, this body of work is a celebration of beauty and wonder.

Renata’s work has been exhibited widely across Europe whilst actively working for various art and education initiatives including project management and curation. She is co- founder & director of the BBA Gallery and holds a Master of Art in Fine Art / Printmaking from the Royal College of Art London.

Curator - Giulietta Coates
Text - Karen Raney

Dies ist die erste Einzelausstellung von Renata Kudlacek in der BBA Gallery. Kudlacek wurde in Tschechien geboren und stammt aus einer katholischen Familie mit Wurzeln im alten Osteuropa. Die unterschiedlichen Kulturgeschichten von Ost und West sowie die Konfrontation von Glaube und Vernunft fließen in alle ihre Arbeiten ein. Ihre exquisiten Fine-Art-Prints und handgefertigten Siebdrucke kombinieren die eigenen Fotografien und Zeichnungen der Künstlerin, die alten Stichen oder Gemälden von Flora und Fauna nachempfunden sind, mit originalen historischen wissenschaftlichen Zeichnungen. Die Arbeiten untersuchen die uralte Geschichte unserer Vertreibung aus dem Garten Eden im Lichte der wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse, durch die wir heute Leben, Tod und Träume von Unsterblichkeit verstehen.

Glänzende dunkle Blumen, Schmetterlinge mit ihren Geistern und Schatten, Schlangen und mehrdeutige Naturformen bevölkern das Papier, drängen sich in die Bildfläche oder ergießen sich über Rahmen, die sie nicht fassen können. Die Formen sind extravagant und exzessiv, doch die Blütenblätter sind gealtert und gewellt und die Farben herbstlich. Was im Überfluss vorhanden und lebendig ist, steht kurz vor dem Verfall.

Diese Drucke im spät-nordeuropäischen Barockstil sind zutiefst zeitgenössisch. Historische Dilemmas verbinden sich formal und inhaltlich mit aktuellen. Das runde Renaissance-Tondo, das Geburt, Leben und Ewigkeit symbolisiert, erinnert an die Petrischale oder den Blick durch ein Mikroskop. Die berüchtigte Tulpenmanie des Hollands des 17. Jahrhunderts hat in unserer Zeit des konsumistischen Exzesses und des bevorstehenden Zusammenbruchs ein unheimliches Echo. Die Arbeit deutet an, dass das Versprechen des Garten Eden ebenso wie das Versprechen des Konsums eine Illusion ist.

Die Art und Weise, wie die Künstlerin ihre Blumen und Schmetterlinge sammelt und vor uns ausschüttet, hat etwas Manisches, eine Fülle von Leben am Rande des Todes, vielleicht eine Vorahnung der ökologischen Katastrophen, denen wir gegenüberstehen. Melancholie und Verlust durchdringen diese kraftvollen Bilder. Sie sind auch voller Zärtlichkeit und der Sehnsucht nach Ganzheit und Ideal, die dem Mythos von Eden zugrunde liegt. Letztendlich ist dieses Werk eine Feier der Schönheit und des Wunders. 

Kuratorin - Giulietta Coates
Text - Karen Raney

Watch Renata make one of her handmade Screenprints - from start to finish

In Partnership with

Location
RAW Area, Berlin. Revaler Strasse 99, 10245 Berlin

BBA Photography Prize has been warmly invited to Berlin Photo Week this year to exhibit a selection of the most exciting and surprising photographers from our on-going international open call for BBA Photography Prize 2021. Berlin Photo Week unites some of the biggest globally-recognised industry professionals and heavyweights as well as passionate enthusiasts in an inventive new format at the RAW Area, Berlin. Partners and sponsors of the event include Leica, Sony, WhiteWall, Eyeem, Panasonic, Nikon and Calumet, to name a few.

It goes without saying that we are absolutely head over heels to showcase our photographers and their extraordinary work from this year's on-going submissions. Together with previous years winners and shortlists. Their photographs will be displayed both digitally as well as physically in a specially dedicated prominent space on the festival grounds.

Don’t worry, there’s still time to share your work! The BBA Photography Prize 2021 remains open for entries. Our prize offers numerous opportunities, including a solo show, cash prizes and the featured exposure of our annual photography exhibition at the iconic Kühlhaus Berlin in November 2021.

Scroll down to get a first-hand look at who will be exhibiting with us at Berlin Photo Week 2021 — the event the entire city has been waiting for.

A selection of our previous winners

Our thirst for a wide variety of subjects is reflected in our selection of previous winners:

Chirag Jindal (New Zealand, Winner of BBA Photography Prize 2019) creates otherworldly-looking images through the use of photographic documentation. His photography is concerned with environments which are experiencing rapid marginalisation, desecration and destruction due to urbanisation

Gloria Oyarzabel (Spain, Winner of BBA Photography Prize 2020) is interested in the discourse around (de)colonisation. Her photography explores the intersectional effect of imperialism on African Feminisms 

Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart (Canada, Shortlist BBA Photography Prize 2019) is a self-taught photographer who examines the effects of transforming the ordinary into the absurd while simultaneously making reference to editorial photography 

Julia Fullerton-Batten (United Kingdom, People Choice Award Winner 2020) indulges her work in the dramatic and the surreal. A skilled storyteller, her photography produces a hyper-real, cinematic effect which always leaves the spectator wanting to know more

Sarah Choo Jing (Singapore, Shortlist BBA Artist Prize 2021) is an interdisciplinary artist whose series Accelerated Intimacy plays with the tension between privacy and the inherently voyeuristic nature of photography

60 new photographic discoveries

We are pleased to offer our early deadline applicants from our on-going open call an entry into this much-coveted world by exhibiting their work at one of the most highly awaited photographic events of the year. As the BBA Photography Prize continues to grow, we are excited to announce that we will be joined at Berlin Photo Week by more than sixty photographers whose works will be exhibited digitally at the centre of the festival area. The participants, selected on the grounds of visual excellence, storytelling, conceptual thinking, technical craftsmanship and creativity — all the while subverting categories and genres on their way — all embody qualities that we highly value. With a diverse range of works, everyone’s sure to find their favourite. 

‘Ngā Mahi Rarowhenua / Into the Underworld’ sees the New Zealand artist Chirag Jindal creating otherworldly-looking images through the use of photographic documentation. The works, shaped by a highly aesthetic and original visual language, manage to embrace the surreal while simultaneously provoking nostalgia through the use of apparition. His images invite the spectator to dive deeper into the story. As a result, there is something cinematic about entering the visual fidelity of Jindal’s subject — the underworld.

Jindal’s interest in the urban environment can be traced back to his MA Degree in Architecture which he received in 2016. He has been represented by BBA Gallery ever since 2019 when he won the BBA Photography Prize. ‘Ngā Mahi Rarowhenua / Into the Underworld’ will mark his first solo show at both BBA Gallery and in Europe.

His ongoing 2018 debut series, which shares its title with the exhibition, unites creative photography with one of the most innovative technologies in the field. The idea of mergence is central to Jindal’s work which witnesses the blending of two different worlds. The artist is adamant that his images are concerned with the simultaneous co-existence of these differing worlds, even if the relationship is conflictual. The notion of co-existence is reflected in the bilingual exhibition title where neither the Māori nor the English counterpart serve as subtitles but stand on their own, on equal ground.

Of course, topographically, this is not the case. Jindal’s photography explores the underground lava caves of Auckland which are experiencing rapid marginalisation, desecration and destruction due to a century of overhead urbanisation. The series has therefore an inherently environmental as well as a social undertone as these caves are considered wāhi tapu (sacred) by mana whenua (local Māori groups) whom Jindal collaborates closely with. Due to their concealed nature, these caves have been reduced to a fictionalised, rumoured urban myth with most people unaware of the unique heritage of the volcanic region. Although more than fifty of these caves have been recorded, few are expected to remain at the end of the century, mainly due to the onslaught of developers.

This ephemeral, haunting emotion is felt in Jindal’s work via its dark, translucent environment. Despite this, it is always the underground cave which emanates the brightest in his images. The series largely consists of prints but it is Jindal’s use of the light box medium which truly enables his work to shine. The subdued, almost hypnotic glow of the caves reaches beyond the picture space, drawing the viewer into its hidden world. The exhibition also provides a behind the scenes look which shows the process behind Jindal’s underground effort to record these endangered environments. It is all too often that these sacred sites are thought of in historical terms. Jindal’s concurrent landscape cements these heritage sites in the present, championing the minimisation of future damage. It is the artist’s hope that the documentation of these disappearing sites will act as a first step towards a shift in urban policy, one that is directed towards recognition and preservation instead of destruction. 

To prevent these subterranean sites from falling into oblivion, Jindal employs the empirical help of terrestrial LiDAR — an emerging form of lens-based imaging that is often applied in areas such as archaeology and criminology. Taking light as its medium, the instrument indexes the surrounding environment as millions of precisely-measured points, translating it into a digital replica.

BBA Gallery, in collaboration with Jindal, is excited to announce an artist-led workshop where people with a sincere interest in this new photographic form can explore the opportunities this medium — that is still at its experimental stage within creative photography — has to offer. The workshop will take place during Berlin Photo Week where a selection of Jindal’s images will also be exhibited.

Awards and Prizes 

Winner, Under 30s Award, Royal Photographic Society, London UK 2020
Winner, RT Nelson Emerging Artist Award, Wellington NZ 2019
Winner, NZ Art Fair People’s Choice Award, Wellington NZ 2019
Winner, Interphoto Grand Prix, Bialystok Poland 2019
Winner, BBA Photography Prize, Berlin Germany 2019
Winner, LAB 13 Art Prize, Rome, Italy 2019
Winner, Schauerman Digital Art Prize, London, United Kingdom 2019
Winner, Tall Poppy Prize, Central Otago Arts Gold, Otago New Zealand 2019
Finalist, Majaoja Prize, Tampere, Finland (winner TBC Sep 5 2020)
Finalist, Bird in Flight Prize, Kyiv Ukraine 2019
Finalist, Aesthetica Art Prize, London, United Kingdom 2019
Finalist, Meitar Award, Tel Aviv, Israel 2019
Finalist, Arte Laguna Prize, Venice, Italy 2019
Finalist, Lumen Art Prize, London United Kingdom 2018

About the artist

NZ-based artist Chirag Jindal works at the intersection of documentary journalism, new media and contemporary cartography. After graduating with his MA in Architecture, Jindal founded a 3D surveying practice to document urban landscapes, collaborating closely with scientists, architects, indigenous groups and local governments. His work has been widely exhibited at international festivals and recognised by leading photography institutions, including the Interphoto Grand Prix in Poland, the Backlight Photo Triennale in Finland and the BBA Photography Prize in Berlin. In 2020, Jindal was awarded the Under 30s Gold Award by the Royal Photographic Society in London.

Swiss artist Nicolas Vionnet is fascinated by irritations. A multi-disciplinary artist, Vionnet is creator of thought-provoking, jarring and sometimes playful interventions between objects, conceptual paintings and installations which provoke a dialogue with their environment. His works do not shout for attention, but instead present themselves through subtlety and wit. To engage with his works is to feel a build-up of tension that challenges viewers and triggers curiosity. As one of the winners of the BBA Artist Prize 2018, this is Vionnet’s first solo exhibition with BBA Gallery.

Like an electrician wiring a circuit, Vionnet interconnects objects together. However, instead of closing the circuit and creating functionality through the correct interconnection, Vionnet's work may appear functional for a split second then impossible on second glance. In “221 Reasons to say No” a set of bathroom scales is bedecked with metal nails pointing upwards, while in “Always stand on the bright side of life” a floor lamp merges with a walking frame. An industrial power socket with a wig stuck inside is called: “To be honest, I never wanted to become an electrician anyway.” Each object is in itself commonplace, with the titles of the interventions also somehow familiar, yet by integrating elements and the visual language of each object, the artist achieves the reaction he hopes for: irritation, reflection, a smile.

With his indoor, and sometimes outdoor installations, Vionnet continues his principle of irritation and integration. These are interventions of the quiet kind, where the viewer is invited to enter into a dialogue. Visitors to the gallery hear the splashing of a shower head dripping water coming from another room – then on entering the next room they are confronted by a bathroom where an old bathtub invites them to shower in the unsuitable location of a gallery. What remains is astonishment. This room installation is given the title “Maria, if you had stayed tough, we would have been spared Christmas” turning the visitor’s perception upside down and tempting them to immerse themselves in their own story.

When describing his process, Vionnet speaks of "non-hierarchical dialogue" where the artistic work does not rise above its environment and its message is not pre-defined by the artist.  In this sense, viewers can also be understood to be part of the environment of an object or an installation; their internal processes, irritation, amusement or lack of understanding become part of the work and are all equally valid. Vionnet says, “the expression 'non-hierarchical dialogue with the environment’ describes my conviction that the work of art itself should never dominate. Actually, there shouldn't be a hierarchy. Ideally, there is a balance between work and the environment. This balance enables the viewer to perceive both components at the same time.”  

Vionnet also plays with the existing artistic expectations in the field of painting. His large-format paintings in the series “Untitled” are devoted to drapery; a motif that is significant in art history and which, if executed convincingly, underscores the painter's mastery. Vionnet dedicates himself to the topic in a completely different way, through a direct and conceptual approach. The raw fabric of each canvas is draped with layer after layer of transparent, black paint via a spray can, leading to different parts becoming loaded with compacted paint. Wherever the fabric of the canvas is raised, the paint sticks, leaving other areas white. After this painting process, the fabric is stretched and drawn onto the canvas. So simple, so convincing.

Nicolas Vionnet ist fasziniert von Irritationen. Er schafft Interventionen durch Objekte, konzeptuelle Gemälde und Installationen, die einen Dialog mit ihrer Umgebung provozieren. Seine Arbeiten schreien nicht nach Aufmerksamkeit, sondern präsentieren sich zurückhaltend und mit subtilem Witz. Sie bauen ein Spannungsfeld auf, fordern den Betrachter heraus und machen neugierig. Vionnet war einer der Gewinner des BBA Artist Prize 2018. Dies ist die erste Einzelausstellung des Schweizer Künstlers mit der BBA Gallery.

Einem Elektriker gleich verschaltet Vionnet die Elemente, aus denen seine Objekte bestehen. Anstelle jedoch durch korrekte Verschaltung den Stromkreislauf zu schließen und Funktionalität zu erzeugen, erscheinen Vionnets Arbeiten nur auf den ersten Blick funktional. Eine Waage mit Nägeln: „221 Reasons to say No“, eine Stehlampe mit Gehwagen: „Always stand on the bright side of life”, eine Industriesteckdose, in der eine Perücke steckt: „To be honest, I never wanted to become an electrician anyway.” Diese Objekte sind so alltäglich, so wenig schrill oder pompös, dass die Interventionen manchmal auf den ersten Blick gar nicht auffallen mögen. Und auch die Titel scheinen nicht allzu fremd zu sein, kommen einem irgendwie bekannt vor. Durch Integration weniger Elemente und Sprache erzielt der Künstler genau die Reaktion, die er sich erhofft: Irritation, Nachdenken, ein Schmunzeln.  

Mit Installationen im Innen- und zuweilen auch im Aussenraum führt Vionnet sein Prinzip von Irritation und Integration fort. Es sind Eingriffe der leisen Art, die den Betrachter zum Dialog einladen. Wer die Galerie betritt der vernimmt ein Plätschern und Blubbern, fast so, als würde eine Duschbrause tropfend Wasser von sich geben. Was zuerst als undenkbar erscheint, bestätigt sich jedoch beim Betreten des Nebenraumes. Dort steht eine alte Sitzwanne mit zugezogenem Duschvorhang. Eine scheinbar alltägliche Handlung, das Duschen, wird mit einem unpassenden Ort, dem Galerie-Raum, verknüpft. Was bleibt ist Verwunderung. Die Rauminstallation mit dem Titel „Maria, wärst du hart geblieben, wär Weihnachten uns erspart geblieben“ stellt die Wahrnehmung der Besucher auf den Kopf und verleitet dazu, in eine eigene Geschichte einzutauchen.

Vionnet spricht vom „nicht-hierarchischen Dialog“. Die künstlerische Arbeit erhebt sich nicht über ihre Umwelt, und ihre Aussage ist vom Künstler nicht vor-definiert.  „Der Ausdruck, nicht-hierarchischer Dialog mit der Umwelt‘ beschreibt meine Überzeugung, dass das Kunstwerk selbst niemals dominieren darf. Eigentlich sollte es keine Hierarchie geben. Idealerweise besteht ein Gleichgewicht zwischen Arbeit und Umwelt. Diese Balance ermöglicht es dem Betrachter, beide Komponenten gleichzeitig wahrzunehmen.“ In diesem Sinne lässt sich auch der Betrachter als Teil der Umwelt eines Objektes oder einer Installation verstehen. Seine inneren Vorgänge, die Irritation, seine Amüsiertheit oder sein Unverständnis werden Teil der Arbeit, und sind alle gleichermaßen valide.

Auch auf dem Feld der Malerei spielt Vionnet mit Gewohnheiten und Erwartungen. Seine großformatigen Gemälde der Serie „Untitled“ widmen sich dem Faltenwurf, einem kunstgeschichtlich bedeutenden Motiv, welches, so denn überzeugend ausgeführt, die Meisterschaft des Malers unterstrich. Vionnet widmet sich dem Thema auf komplett andere Weise: Seine Vorgehensweise ist direkt und zeigt konzeptionelle Ansätze. Der Leinwandstoff wird in unbespanntem Zustand drapiert, mit einer transparenten, schwarzen Sprühfarbe Schicht für Schicht bearbeitet und punktuell an gewissen Stellen verdichtet. Überall wo der Stoff erhöht ist, kann die Farbe haften, die versteckten Partien hingegen bleiben weiß. Nach dem Malvorgang wird der Stoff gestreckt und auf die Leinwand aufgezogen. So schlicht, so überzeugend.

Thwarting the ‘Made in China’ mass production mode through her employment of traditional Chinese craftsmanship, artist Ming Lu creates small, valuable editions of contemporary fine art. Her artworks are produced in a variety of media such as porcelain sculptures, embroideries, fine art prints and soft sculptures.

Born and raised in China and studying at The Royal College of Art in London, Ming Lu is now living in Berlin. Ming Lu has won the BBA Artist Prize in 2020 and is a new represented artist of the gallery. She works closely with small workshops in China to bring her ideas to life, humorously employing symbols and figures from myths, legends, prehistorical culture, and from her own biography. Ming Lu’s works reflect her cultural identity, which combines an enduring attachment to China, the country of her birth, to that of a growing relationship with her new home of Europe.

Ming Lu’s metaphorical use of everyday objects is a typical approach for the artist; her works often veer between abstraction and literalness, the familiar and the uncanny, the absurdity and gravity.

The soft sculptures of the ‘Tigress’ series are the artist’s personal interpretation of traditional Chinese tiger pillows that are widely given to babies as a toy, a token of love, a wish for a long life and to protect and guard the child. These pillows are all made by hand, usually by members of the family. Ming Lu’s works transcend the routine fabric pattern of the toys; the contents of the tigress’ bodies ­– that have a connection to the artist childhood in the 90‘s in China – convey a sense of nostalgia. The artist owned one herself and lost it when she was young.

‘Materialistic life’ is a series of nine embroideries depicting familiar objects. The shapes of the objects are filled with hovering golden threads that reflect light in the directions of the threads, giving the initial flat image plane a three-dimensional illusion. Historically the threads are made with real gold, and are used in decorative figures on Emperors' clothes such as dragons, a phoenix or other divine animals. The artist adopts the same technique here, portraying industrially produced and everyday items and therefore ironically turns them into objects of luxury.

Ming Lu’s porcelain sculptures play with decorative and meaningful aspects reflecting both everyday and historical culture. Her porcelain cubes turn supportive, decorative patterns into the main characters of the works. The intertwined branches and flowers are commonly meant to represent endless vitality. Her porcelain ducks reference the most popular Chinese dish and her porcelain head reflects the artist’s thoughts and personal conversations.

Drawing on heritage, cross-cultural dynamics and personal reference, the artist creates dense vividly-coloured fine art prints that challenge perceptual habits and representation of ritual objects. Mainly focusing on imaginative animals from historical vessels, Ming Lu gives them various layered surfaces including pure colour planes, decorative fabric ornaments, freely painted patterns, calligraphy and symbols; playfully transforming the materiality of these once functional yet now ‘functionless’ museum items. Reflecting on the collective memory and the original presentation of power and belief, the traditional visual language combined with the artist’s strong personal expression, varies between powerful and joyful, timeless and contemporary.

The exhibition also includes the artist's first works with Luodian, originally a decorative handicraft technique with use of various shells in Chinese lacquerware, in her works reflecting post-industrial life. The latest addition to Ming Lu's creative work is a series of digital artworks called `The young pioneers’ which can be bought and collected as NFT’s on the blockchain.

Die Künstlerin Ming Lu konterkariert den Massenproduktionsmodus „Made in China“ durch die Verwendung traditioneller chinesischer Handwerkskunst und schafft kleine, wertvolle Editionen zeitgenössischer bildender Kunst. Ihre Kunstwerke werden in einer Vielzahl von Medien wie Porzellanskulpturen, Stickereien, Kunstdrucken und weichen Skulpturen hergestellt.

Die in China geborene und aufgewachsene Künstlerin studierte am Royal College of Art in London und lebt heute in Berlin. Ming Lu hat den BBA-Künstlerpreis im Jahr 2020 gewonnen und ist eine neu vertretene Künstlerin der Galerie. Sie arbeitet eng mit kleinen Werkstätten in China zusammen, um ihre Ideen zum Leben zu erwecken. Dabei verwendet sie humorvoll Symbole und Figuren aus Mythen, Legenden, prähistorischer Kultur und aus ihrer eigenen Biografie. Ming Lus Arbeiten spiegeln ihre kulturelle Identität wider, die eine dauerhafte Bindung an China, das Land ihrer Geburt, mit der einer wachsenden Beziehung zu ihrer neuen Heimat Europa verbindet.

Ming Lus metaphorische Verwendung von Alltagsgegenständen ist ein typischer Ansatz für die Künstlerin. Ihre Arbeiten bewegen sich oft zwischen Abstraktion und Wörtlichkeit, dem Vertrauten und Unheimlichen, Absurdität und Ernsthaftigkeit.

Mit ihren Stoff-Skulpturen der Serie „Tigress“  interpretiert die Künstlerin die traditionellen chinesischen Tigerkissen, die Babys häufig als Spielzeug, Zeichen der Liebe, verbunden mit dem Wunsch nach einem langen Leben und zum Schutz des Kindes gegeben werden. Diese Kissen werden alle von Hand hergestellt, normalerweise von Familienmitgliedern. Die Künstlerin verändert das routinemäßige Stoffmuster der Spielzeuge. Dazu nutzt sie Druckmotive, die einen Bezug zur Kindheit der Künstler in den 90er Jahren in China haben. Die Stofftiere werden so zu persönlichen und nostalgischen Objekten. Die Künstlerin besaß tatsächlich selbst eines und verlor es, als sie jung war.

"Materialistic life" ist eine Serie von 9 Stickereien, die vertraute Objekte darstellen. Die Formen der Objekte sind mit schwebenden goldenen Fäden gefüllt, die das Licht in verschiedene Richtungen reflektieren und der anfänglichen flachen Bildebene eine dreidimensionale Illusion verleihen. Historisch gesehen bestehen die Fäden aus echtem Gold und werden in dekorativen Figuren wie Drachen, Phönix oder anderen göttlichen Tieren auf den Kleidern der Kaiser verwendet. Die Künstlerin wendet dieselbe Technik an, um industriell hergestellte und alltägliche Gegenstände darzustellen, und verwandelt sie somit mit ironischer Geste in Luxusobjekte.

Die Porzellanskulpturen von Ming Lu spielen mit dekorativen und bedeutungsvollen Aspekten, die sowohl die alltägliche als auch die historische Kultur widerspiegeln. Ihre Porzellanwürfel verwandeln unterstützende, dekorative Muster in das Hauptsächliche der Arbeiten. Die miteinander verflochtenen Zweige und Blüten repräsentieren endlose Vitalität. Ihre Porzellanenten beziehen sich augenzwinkernd auf das beliebteste chinesische Gericht und ihr Porzellankopf spiegelt die Gedanken und persönlichen Gespräche der Künstlerin wider. 

Ausgehend von ihrem kulturellen Erbe, interkultureller Dynamik und persönlichen Bezügen schafft die Künstlerin dichte, farbenfrohe Kunstdrucke, welche die Wahrnehmungsgewohnheiten und die Darstellung ritueller Objekte in Frage stellen. Ming Lu nutzt dazu fabelhafte Tiere, die als Formgeber für historische, rituelle Gefäße dienten. Diesen gibt sie geschichtete Oberflächen, darunter reine Farbebenen, dekorative Stoffornamente, frei gemalte Muster, Kalligraphie und Symbole, die die Materialität dieser einst funktionalen und jetzt „funktionslosen“ Museumsgegenstände spielerisch verändern. Die Arbeiten sind kraft- und freudvoll, ebenso zeitlos wie zeitgemäß und reflektieren das kollektive Gedächtnis und die ursprüngliche Darstellung von Macht und Glauben, indem sie tradierte Bildsprache mit dem persönlichen Ausdruck der Künstlerin verbinden.

Die Ausstellung enthält auch die ersten Arbeiten der Künstlerin mit Luodian, ursprünglich eine dekorative Handwerkstechnik unter Verwendung verschiedener Muscheln in chinesischen Lackwaren. Die neueste Ergänzung in Ming Lus kreativer Arbeit ist eine Reihe digitaler Kunstwerke mit dem Titel "The young pioneers", die als NFT’s in der Blockchain gekauft und gesammelt werden können.

Edition 1 - Zusammen: Let's Go

Artists

Seb Agnew // Arthur Bauer // Ruth Brenner // Paul Brouns // Sophie Dumaresq // Julia Fullerton-Batten // Natasa Galecic // Michael Gatzke // Carlotta Guerra // Takeo Hirose // Beate Köhne // Tuomas Korkalo // Anton Lefabi // Ming Lu // Jean-Baptiste Monnin // Adriane Morard // Gloria Oyarzabal // Martin T Raggio // Cesare Reggiani // Geza Ricz // Soji Shimizu // Jürgen Sobkowiak // Astrid Verhoef // Jasna Vukos // Cate Wind // Elizabeth Withstandley

Curated by Emily Dickinson

BBA New Currents is a recurring format featuring the gallery’s newfound talents. We find many of our collaborating artists through our international open calls. This series highlights selections of fresh and exciting positions. Let’s connect, communicate and discover. 

Zusammen: Let’s Go synergises a diverse group of creatives in the spirit of new beginnings. 26 international artists are showing one work each in a variety of media and a wide spectrum of content. The selection of artworks allows for the discovery of unexpected relations.

Included are works from Amsterdam based Astrid Verhoef, whose photography contains highly staged scenes that verge on the surreal, placing individuals and objects where they don’t seem to belong. Yugoslavian born artist Geza Ricz’ paintings explore the relationship between figuration and abstraction, using harsh blocks of vibrant colour over figurative lines and UK based artist Ruth Brenner who’s sculptural practice is based on intuitive material exploration and combination, studies ideas of the bodily.

Find out more about all included artists:

Seb Agnew

Lives and works in Hamburg, Germany

Education:
Audiovisual Media (B.Eng), Stuttgart, Germany
Vocational Education (M.Ed., B.Sc), Hamburg, Germany

Within staged and often dreamlike sceneries, he explores the human psyche and our modern society. Disorientation, momentary solitude and lonesome reflection are recurring themes within Seb’s conceptual body of work. His images are strongly characterized by elaborate set design, distinctive lighting and carefully arranged composition. In order to create his surreal, mysterious and cinematic settings, Seb transforms whole rooms or builds his locations completely as miniature sets in which he later integrates his life-size models.Today, Seb is excited to be able to work independently as a photo artist and to teach aspiring photographers at the “Vocational School for Media and Communication” in Hamburg, Germany.

Arthur Bauer

Born in Kazakhstan, currently based in Mannheim, Germany

Education:
Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim ( Political Science, Sociology, and Psychology, Master in 2011 )

Before devoting himself to photography, he was working in the field of film. Scenic work gave room for experimentation. The documentary format trained the observational gaze.

As a social scientist, he is interested in how context affects people and how people shape their environment. Photography encapsulates this relationship, providing a glimpse into the world of thoughts and emotions. For him, photographs are like frames from a cinematic scene that inevitably make you wonder what just happened or what will happen next.

Ruth Brenner

Born in Scotland, lives and works between Surrey and Sunderland

Education:
Practice-led PhD, University of Sunderland, 2017- present
MA Ceramics, University of Sunderland, 2015 - 2017
Master of Fine Art, Newcastle University, 2010 - 2012
BA (Hons, First Class) Fine Art, Northumbria University, 2007 – 2010

Brenner’s practice is intuitive based on material exploration and the bodily, both physical and mental, act of making. The influences of corporeality are central to her practice as the work has a direct relationship to her bodily dimensions; physical ability; sensory awareness and her relationship with the material. Making is, therefore, inextricably linked with the outcome which is a visual record of cognitive processes. The work plays with boundaries: industrial versus domestic; masculine versus feminine. It also touches on natural science and the study of matter by exploring the nature of materials through observation and experimentation.

Brenner’s practice covers a diverse range of materials and processes. The materials include – clay, metals, rubber, resins, waxes, human hair, wood and various other materials. The processes include – ceramics, welding, turning, casting and experimental investigations.

Paul Brouns

Lives and works in Almere (near Amsterdam), Netherlands

Education:
Academy of Fine Arts, Tilburg, Netherlands (1985 – 1990)

Observing the urban world, he is attracted by the abstract, rhythmic poetry of buildings. Available in limited editions, his work has been exhibited worldwide and sold to collectors, ranging from Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi, to New York, London and Amsterdam.

In the series "Urban Tapestries" façades are captured frontally, filling the entire composition. Because of their simplicity and shallow depth, attention is drawn to rhythm, color and light on the surfaces. Its counterpart is the "Perspective Play" series. In these works visual depth and converging lines of perspective are used to fill the image plane with repeating elements. In both series sometimes photographic images are manipulated. Expanded surfaces and enhanced feelings of scale give the work a hypnotic attraction.

Sophie Dumaresq

Lives and works in Canberra, Australia

Education:
The Australian National University School of Art and Design, Canberra, Australia 2018 - 2021
Speos, International School of Photography, Paris, France 2011 – 2013

Sophie is an artist working in new media robotic arts and photo media in addition to large and small-scale sculptural installations. Her work explores symbiotic cycles of consumption, destruction and creation demonstrating how as a species we relate, show empathy and evolve with and within our surrounding environment.

Julia Fullerton-Batten

Born in Bremen, Germany, lives and works in London, UK

Education:
Berkshire College of Art & Design, Reading, UK, 1990-1992

Julia Fullerton-Batten is a worldwide acclaimed and exhibited fine-art photographer. Her body of work now encompasses twelve major projects spanning a decade of engagement in the field. Julia’s use of unusual locations, highly creative settings, street-cast models, accented with cinematic lighting are hallmarks of her very distinctive style of photography. She insinuates visual tensions in her images, and imbues them with a hint of mystery, which combine to tease the viewer to re-examine the picture, each time seeing more content and finding a deeper meaning. Fullerton-Batten has won countless awards for both her commercial and fine-art work, and is a Hasselblad Master. She was commissioned by The National Portrait Gallery in London to shoot portraits of leading people in the UK National Health Service. These are now held there in a permanent collection.

Nataša Galečić

Works and lives in Hannover, Germany

Education:
Master ’s of Fine Arts in Studio Art, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA, 2013
Bachelor ’s of Fine Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade, Serbia, 2010

Trash is the ultimate lens of our lives, our priorities, our failings, our secrets and our hubris. In our desire to break free from geographical constrains, to push out into space, to reach out for the stars, we have turned our geographical fabric into a plastic monster that is threatening to swallow our planet. Nataša 's work pays equal tribute to the issues of overconsumption, overpopulation, and pollution, which are all a part of a much bigger question: How to break out of the prison of our geography? By converting piles of discarded items (everyday objects, gadgets, e-waste, direct marketing mail, etc.) into a topographic-like urban or celestial landscape, Nataša creates narratives that situate the viewer in two places at the same time - inside and outside of the observed place. The work thus shifts between many perspectives and many ways of seeing, and makes room for multiple vectors of meaning, visibility, and form.

Michael Gatzke

Lives and works in Köln, Germany

Education:
Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Alanus Hochschule, Alfter, 2018
Visual Arts – Painting, Alanus Hochschule, Bonn, 2014
2. State examination in law, Düsseldorf, 1985

Michael Gatzke is primarily a 21st century painter. "He fell out of time"? Because everything has already been shown on the screens, the representatives of new media and participatory approaches are today (rightly) artistic blockbusters. Does the "exhausted art form" of painting mean anything other than shrugging? Nevertheless, or should it be said for this reason, Michael Gatzke is fearless, even seeming to be grateful for his connection with all the old and new painterly princes. And here he finds his own position and strengthens it.

Carlotta Guerra

Born in Italy, based in Los Angeles, USA

Education:
Contemporary art and cinema, University of Bologna, Italy.

Carlotta’s work revolves around an intimate and personal exploration of life -its energy, delicacy, playfulness and mystery. She seeks to find moments of amazement in her familiar - sometimes domestic - world, in views that she feels convey a transcendent quality of wonder, an allusion of the vastness of life. Nature, ordinary scenes of her family life, her childhood haunts and investigations of her subconscious influences are Guerra’s main themes.

Takeo Hirose

Born in Kyoto, Japan, lives and works in Chiba, Japan

Takeo Hirose started studying photography in earnest in 2011 when Japan suffered from the huge earthquake disaster.

Through the earthquake he understood that the beautiful sceneries are not eternal but actually very fragile, and noticed the importance of taking photos of the Japanese beauty. His production concept is to express the world of traditional Japanese paintings and ink paintings with modern Japanese sensibility and photo technology.

For the past few years he has produced the works with a motif of bamboo, which can be associated with Japan.

Beate Köhne

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education:
Magister Artium (M.A.) in German studies, biology and psychology, Bielefeld University, 1995
Advanced skills in drawing and acryl- and oil painting, 2011

Beate‘s paintings seem to be about nature. But it is natural processes and energies that are at the core of her work, not the desire for a true-to-life image. Painting layer for layer, she creates a complex system of movement and structure, nurtured by light and color. Her intense use of white, be it mixed or pure, creates an airiness, which is supported by the partly raw canvas.Her work involves the viewer as part of what is going on on the canvas – the dynamics and changes of all things living.

Tuomas Korkalo

Lives and works in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland

Education:
Art School, Imatra, Finland, 2008

Korkalo paints, draws and creates art installations. The abstract and geometric forms that Korkalo employs on canvas are evocative of early 20th century aesthetics as seen in the Bauhaus and Russian avant garde movement for example. Unlike the Bauhaus aesthetics, he implements watercolour -like technique in his art that adds a complementary lightness to his works. In these works the geometric and colourful compositions, employed on the canvas by the artist, function by themselves, creating a comforting feeling derived from the pureness of form and symmetry. Korkalo masters both, solo and team work, and he also works widely in various international and interdisciplinary projects. He has had solo and group exhibitions in Finland and abroad since 2000. Tuomas Korkalo is a member of Finnish Painters´ Union and Artists´ Association of Lapland.

Anton Lefabi

Graduated in architecture from La Cambre-Horta, Brussels, and currently works and lives in Vienna, Austria

The work of European artist Anton Lefabi is centered on repetition, obsession, sacrifice and irony. It is essentially based on a conceptual modus operandi which manifests itself in various thematic work series. One of them develops the pathos-free obsession concerning the events and consequences of 9/11. The Matière series - another long-term project - deals with the artistic and philosophic examination of time and temporality. For Anton Lefabi, the suitable form of expression is defined by the idea's inherent mindset - be it drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, performance, photography or something else.

Ming Lu

Born in China, lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education:
Royal College of Art, London, UK, 2018
London College of Communication, London, UK, 2016

Ming Lu’s works include photography, installation, performance, and more traditional media – porcelain and embroidery. Her recent works play on the tension between contemporary art and traditional Chinese craftsmanship. As Made-in-China mass production became a global industrial phenomena, the artist works closely with the handicraft that is known to be slow, inaccurate, time and labor consuming, almost forgotten but are deep-rooted. Humorously employing symbols and figures from myths, legends, prehistorical culture, and from her own biography alike, Ming Lu’s works reflect her cultural identity, which combines enduring attachments to China, the country of her birth and to Europe, where she studied art.

Jean-Baptiste Monnin

Born in Besançon, France, lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education:
Media Art School, Chalon-sur-Saône, France, 2007-2010
Special Design, Claude-Nicolas LEDOUX Besançon, France, 2002-2005

Jean-Baptiste Monnin works mostly with drawing, challenging this traditional medium by exploring its fragility and sensitivity. Inspired by architecture and science, his attention focuses on details. Structured or uncontrolled, these details are depicted through abstract compositions. Implementing a long and rigorous process that involves the use of various media, he experiments with notions of perspective, scale and relief. He likes interpreting phenomena beyond the human eye and disorientating the viewer. He blurs the lines, creating a universe that questions our perception of the world.

Adriane Morard

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education:
2017-2014, BA Fine Arts, Bern University of the Arts, Bern, CH
2007-2003, Multimedia Conception, Ecole Romande d’Arts et Communciation (ERACOM), Lausanne, CH
2003-2002, Preparatory school, visual arts, Céruléum, Lausanne, CH

Adriane Morard takes interest in altered ways of operating in physical and social realities. Exploring materials and their subjectivity, her most recent works emphasize on gold and its representations. Focusing on gold as a universal embodiment of the dominant paradigm, she playfully distorts, breaks, and cracks open the preciosity of the material, unfolding frictions and asymmetries that are echoing the system it operates in.

Gloria Oyarzabal

Lives and works in Madrid, Spain

Education:
Master in Creation & Development of Photographic Projects at Blankpaper School of Photography, Madrid, 2014-2015
Graduated on Conservation & Restoration of Art, 1993
Bachelor of Fine Arts at Complutense University at Madrid, 1998

Gloria Oyarzabal diversifies her activity between film, photography and teaching. Co-founder and programmer at the independent cinema “La Enana Marrón” in Madrid (1999-2009), dedicated to the diffusion of author, experimental and alternative cinema.

In 2017 she's selected for the artist residence Ranchito Matadero Nigeria/South Africa between Madrid and Art House foundation Lagos (Nigeria) that ables her to develop her research around the colonisation of the concept of woman. Since 1996 working in the cinema world taking care of artistic direction and photography of experimental short films & documentaries.

Martin T Raggio

Born in New York, USA, based in Berlin, Germany

Education:
Media Arts, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, (UBA), 2014
EFTI (Master in Contemporary Photography), 2016

Martin plays with photography using the ¨real world¨ to make his own conceptual reality. As an Argentinian artist, born as a first generation American, his life has been split between the United States and Argentina, now based in Europe. Releasing a Photobook ¨Riverville¨ and now dedicated to work with analog large format. Martin’s statement ,,I play with photography using the ‘’real world’’ to make my own conceptual reality.’’

Cesare Reggiani

Lives and works in Faenza, Italy

After a long career in editorial illustration, from the early nineties, coinciding with the residency for part of the year in Paris, painting became the main artistic expression of the author. Since then Cesare Reggiani has held solo exhibitions in Italy, France, Holland, Germany, USA, Great Britain. Solitary figures of animals inhabit environments of an orderly nature. Line of horizon, mirrors of water, woods. Among these elements of a "mental" nature monumental and diaphanous architectural volumes.Through this "minimalist" composition, the artist tries to communicate a sense of timelessness, contemplation, wonder.

Reggiani works with a refined oil on canvas technique, spread in large bright and almost monochromatic backgrounds with an eye to Italian Renaissance art.

Géza Ricz

Born in Subotica, ex Yugoslavia, lives and works in Salzburg, Austria

Education:
Bachelor of Arts degree, University of Szeged, Hungary, 2011
Master of Arts degree, University of Szeged, Hungary, 2013

Ricz explores the borderline between figuration and abstraction. He aims to create harmonious compositions by using contrary sub-elements. The contrasts of naturalistic and geometrical, damaged and sterile, visible and hidden provide the essence of his imagery. The themes of his collage-like oil paintings are based on personal memories from his childhood in Eastern Europe, social, art historical and historical references. He creates collages that serve as the ground to his oil paintings. He is mixing details of old paintings, photographs, magazine cut-outs and personal memory fragments in order to build up his compositions.

Soji Shimizu

Born in Mie, Japan, lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education:
BFA, School of Art and Design, University of Tsukuba, Japan, 2008 - 2012
Graphic Design course, Tokyo Zokei University, Japan, 2004 - 2006

Soji Shimizu is interested in altering formats, structure, manners, and the process of paintings and exhibitions. He emphasizes a particular factor: color, material, meaning, relation between painting and viewer, that exists in his paintings. He also makes situations based on his beliefs and assumptions, developing works into installations.

Jürgen Sobkowiak

Born and based in Germany

His artistic repertoire ranges from avant-garde photography to collages up to the performative photography. He discovered his love for avant-garde photography by the American artist Francesca Woodman. In his works he explores the fragility and absurdity of human existence. The artist often appears himself in the pictorial space and brings his body into a whimsical relationship with the spatial conditions. This symbiosis of body, space and object creates a grotesque world. The meticulously planned compositions question not only the perception of reality, but reality itself. Jürgen Sobkowiak always works alone, uses daylight as the only source of light and designs the meticulously planned image structure according to idiosyncratic rules. In order to maintain authenticity, he does not use digital post-processing.

Astrid Verhoef

Fine Art Photographer based in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Education:
Arts Academy “Hoogeschool voor de Beeldende Kunsten Utrecht” 1998

Astrid stages scenes that verge on the surreal. Placing individuals and objects where they don’t seem to belong, moving the familiar into an unfamiliar landscape, her photographs seem to recontextualise normality. Juxtaposing human and object, she examines identity and emotion in relation to modern society versus natural spaces. Astrid’s work has been shown & published internationally, and is part of the collection of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris. Among others she has been awarded with Prix Jean Lariviere, Prix de la Photographie de Paris (PX3), B&W Spider awards, Life Framer, New York Photo Festival and New Dutch Photo Talent.

Jasna Vukos

Serbian born Canadian photographer and retoucher living in Toronto, Canada

Education:
Sapienza University Rome, Italy
Ongoing studies on Master degree in Digital Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

Jasna’s “cinematic” photos aim to illustrate the artificial nature of concepts "place" and "identity". They are not spontaneous and natural but are realized through the process that involves setting the stage, placing oneself in a non-place. Her work has been exhibited at Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto, at Serbian Heritage Academy of Canada, at MACRO (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma) in Rome. One of her photos was selected for 2019 Life Framer Editor's pick.

Cate Wind

Born in Durban, South Africa, lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education:
European Cultural Academy, Venice, Italy, 2019
Berlin Art Institute, Berlin, Germany, 2017
Visual Communication, Fachhochschule Aachen, Germany, 1987
Training glass and porcelain painter, Staatliche Glasfachschule Rheinbach, Germany, 1983

Cate Wind creates sculptures and installations that reveal correlations between modern knowledge and ancient systems of belief. Trained in the craftsmanship of glass, traditional painting, and visual communication, Wind assembles refined materials such as metal, glass, or resin with discarded found objects including gearwheels, vintage herbariums, or religious textiles. During her formative childhood in South Africa she developed a fascination with naturopathic medicine, voodoo, and ceremonial rituals. Energy and its transformation are constant topics in her work. Cate creates hybrid sculptures in which her interest in quantum mechanics and metaphysics as well as her research of folk medicine, ancient symbols and alternative healing practices interlock.

Elizabeth Withstandley

Lives and works in Los Angeles, California

Education:
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York (BFA)
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (MFA)

Elizabeth’s work is interdisciplinary including photography, film, video and installation art. She is one of the co-founders of Locust Projects a not-for-profit art space in Miami, Florida. Her work is rooted in conceptual art, taking the form of photographic series, film, video and installations that explore contemporary culture through some sort of narrative. The participants play a large role in the trajectory of each of her projects. Artifacts, individuality, and music are all central themes in Elizabeth’s work. The projects take on the form of artifacts by their simplification and classification, often times like relics from the natural history museum. The work questions individuality while presenting a portrait of a person, a group of people or a specific culture.

Susanne Piotter’s solo show had to be postponed due to the pandemic situation and will happen in November 2021.

“I am fascinated by what seems wrong, disturbs and still fits. " 
Susanne Piotter 

The unfinished, and the occasional madness of architectural language find a home in Susanne Piotter’s sculptures and prints. The Berlin artist, with a background in graphic and media design and a degree in stage design from the Maastricht Art Academy, creates exciting objects and imagery steeped in references to architecture. 

„Mich fasziniert, was falsch erscheint, stört und trotzdem passt.“
Susanne Piotter

Das Unfertige sowie der bisweilen auftretende Wahnwitz der Architektursprache finden ein Zuhause in Susanne Piotters Skulpturen und Druckgrafiken. Die Berliner Künstlerin mit Ausbildungshintergrund Grafik-, Mediendesign und einem Bühnenbildstudium an der Kunstakademie Maastricht/NL kreiert spannungsvolle Objekte und Bildwelten mit Architekturbezug. 

Chirag Jindal
Jindal’s research-based practice operates at the intersection of documentary journalism, new media and contemporary cartography. Produced using terrestrial LiDAR, no.12 The Uncanny documents an unseen, dilapidated lava cave underneath Auckland, and offers a forensic orthograph of an otherwise fictionalised landscape. The work is part of his debut ongoing series “Into The Underworld.”

Diana Wolzak
Diana Wolzak is a multi-disciplinary artist, making sculptures, drawings and prints confronting the materiality of the discarded or overlooked. Her art practice is embedded in personal, art historical, feminist and political narratives. For this exhibition Wolzak shows 3 works; ‘White Flow’ and ‘Pink bends in grass’ and ‘pink star standing’ which explore her method of appropriating from consumer and popular culture.

Giulietta Coates                                                                             
Giulietta Coates photographic work explores the relationship between beauty and different states of melancholy and dread. In this show she presents 2 works from the cycle ‘Recalling the Punctum’ in which she attempts to re-articulate Roland Barthes renowned concept of subjective obsession in the photographic image.

Marina Roca Die
Marina Roca Die works with painting and drawing, always transforming the human body and mixing it with its natural surroundings. Marina presents two works from her series “Scent”, which is a visual poem about the nature of having a body. The works “Under and Orange Night” and “I Can Hear Your Touch” show human bodies accepting the smell, color and shape of flowers and merging with them. Marina creates a garden of entangled and mutated forms where the dissipating borders of flesh and petals create a colorful but unsettling ambiguity.

Nele Ouwens
Nele Ouwens’ paintings drift between realism and surrealism and evolve from an eclectic process of collecting and combining references. The Greta painting is titled with a sarcastic Trump tweet about the activist. The painting reflects the iconic, angry UN speech the activist gave in 2019 - the colors on the edges of the canvas referencing the pink shirt she wore and the blue background of the podium. ‘Out of the woods’ is influenced by pagan ritual costumes that are meant to scare away evil spirits as well as drag culture and therefore reflecting types of masks and costumes as cultural representations of the Unknown, playing upon the philosophical term of the Other.

Nicolas Vionnet
Nicolas Vionnet is fascinated by irritations: interventions in public space that approach and create a non-hierarchical dialogue with the environment. This dialogue opens up a field of tension, which allows the viewer an intensive glimpse of both these phenomena. Vionnet uses the same approach and the same strategy for his objects; Irritation and integration. For the sculpture series shown in the exhibition Vionnet combines everyday objects. In doing so, he works with carefully selected materials and manages to merge different elements into a natural unit.

Olivia Lennon
By geographical accident, the majority of the marble quarried in Europe comes from those same areas along the E.U’s Mediterranean border (the most deadly border in the world) where unknown numbers of people have attempted to flee war, famine and persecution. The fact that some refugee camps are actually situated in marble quarries, where the mourning-work of hewing gravestones takes place deepens this relationship further. Olivia Lennon's Borderstone water-colour series depicts barricades of marble - the literal ‘stuff-of-this-place’- constructed in order to obstruct the entry of those who are seen as ‘not-of-this-place’.

Silvia Binda Heiserova
Silvia Binda Heiserova’s artistic interest lies in the analysis of modern power structures, symbols and vestiges. Representations of superiority and authority encoded as a repetitive pattern, how they manifest and vary in our daily experience are foundational concepts in her practice. In her current artistic research, Silvia investigates the urban memory of western metropolises from a critical feminist perspective. Silvia’s imagery draws upon her vision of the urban space as a political arena, where the struggle for power and control is embodied in architecture. Silvia experiments with fragmentation, hybridisation of elements, colors and forms

Stine Nielsen Ljungdalh / C. Bergson
Stine Nielsen Ljungdalh is an artist researcher and curator working conceptually across the disciplines of photography, objects, installations (architectural fragments), film and text. Ljungdalh’s research is concerned with “imagination” and its relation to knowledge production, and in particular with imagination as a shared faculty often principal in the development of working methods for both Scientists and Artists. The work Meetings with KA #1 and KA #, is C. Bersons voyage into the Alchemical archive. Using B/W photography as representing the Alchemical stage of mercury, in the alchemical transmutation – Reflected in the aesthetic code of language often used in b/w cinema.

Susanne Piotter
Susanne Piotter is a multi-disciplinary artist, working in the fields of printmaking, sculpture and installation. She is interested in change processes relating to architecture and urban development. The series of concrete sculptures called Artifacts evoke an impression of architecture, they are reminiscent of building shells and architectural failures although they are not related to specific buildings. The sculptures are autonomous objects who can be positioned differently, there is no up and down.

Vishal Shah
As a multi-disciplinary artist and creative art director. Vishal presents the fine art print ‘Won’t Go Pop’ from his latest solo show exploring the sweet spot where many dare not tread - the powerful and irreconcilable tension between commercial advertising and fine art. His work combines different disciplines and talents together from moving image, art, design, music, writing and technology.

Renata Kudlacek 
‘Blue Velvet’ screen-print and drawing on paper inspired by the theme of Garden of Eden, the place where humanity lost their innocence,  is part of a greater project which emphasizes the science of life whilst raising the question of life and its origin. Aesthetic experience is closely related to ethical experience. The use of symbolic motifs of flowers, butterflies, snakes etc. within traditional interpretation and mythologies is integral to the work.

Nichts Ist Gewöhnlich (Nothing Is Ordinary)

Nothing is ordinary once it’s allowed to play its part in a Diana Wolzak sculpture. Take a discarded button as seen through the lens of a Wolzak sculpture – suddenly the found object becomes surprising, different and extraordinary. The artist has been called a ‘Pop Art Shaman’. In Wolzak’s world of small scale assemblages, the everydayness of this mundane yet useful object becomes the embodiment of childhood play, a treasure, a collector’s item, a toy.

No longer wanted or needed objects, such as buttons and broken household and industrial objects are Wolzak’s treasure. She spots and gathers up what others cast out, in order to breathe new life into them, frequently combining them with colourful DIY materials purchased from 1-Euro shops. Through her unmonumental sculptures, which are often fragile or precarious in their construction, she redefines our perception of the awe-inspiring.

Wolzak nurtures these cheap throwaway materials into humorous, colourful and playful works of art. Freeing everyday mass production from their function, she allows the mundane to shine beyond their common definition, and creatively redefines their existence. Over time, her works discolour or partly disintegrate, changing the ordinary yet again into something else, something other.

In order to salvage, but also reflect the materiality of her sculptures, Wolzak has been exploring colour, form, texture and content through a series of painstakingly slow and detailed drawings. The drawings have been further developed into smaller and large scale prints. These intensive slow studies are in stark contrast to the chance-like, spontaneity of her sculptures, but yet again transform the work into a new visual language. Just like the new life breathed into found and broken objects, Wolzak‘s art practice is forever evolving.

Embedded in philosophical (phenomenology), personal (giving value to, caring), psychological ( psychotherapy, psychoanalysis), feminist (women’s traditional roles, repetitive cleaning, mending), historical (Arte provera, Pop art, Surrealism) and political (mass consumerism, ecology) narratives, nothing is discarded, everything is explored, redefined, played with, slowly stripped away, and seen through new eyes.

Diana Wolzak is a Dutch artist currently living and working in London and Berlin. Wolzak graduated in Art and Design at Stockwell College of Education and received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Central St. Martins School of Art London as well as a Post graduate Diploma in Visual Communication from Goldsmiths College London. Her works are in collections in London, Paris, The Hague and Dubai.

Limited edition prints for pre-sale

Artist
Vishal Shah

Electronic Music Composer
Dr. Adam Stanovic

Collaborative Team
Jakob Kienzerle
Dave Goodall
Rick Schubert
Serge Castro

Presenting: It Might Blow Up, But It Won’t Go Pop

An exhibition from multidisciplinary artist Vishal Shah, collaborating with a creative production team, exploring the powerful and irreconcilable tension between commercial advertising and fine art. Using an audio video installation playing on a loop, communicative languages warp, design is beautifully abstracted but blocked and concepts are made to jar.

The film abstracts the many signs and symbols of corporate advertising, social communication from their natural context, and observe s them as art. In some cases, the beauty remains, in others meaning is obscured, significance is lost, disruption takes president and surfaces are played upon. This tension is profound; it is a powerful tension within, swinging precariously between a wish to resolve and a need to scream. It Might Blow Up, But It Won't Go Pop is a piece of work that is poised on this very delicate point.

The title of the exhibition is taken from the looped lyric in De La Soul’s third album ‘ Buhloone Mindstate ’ released in Sept. 1993. The hookline "it might blow up, but it won't go pop" is repeated over and over, until the sound of a balloon popping replaces the final word "pop" - the hope of expanding their artistic popularity, without selling out.

The Collaboration

Vishal Shah met Dr. Adam Stanović, composer of electronic music, in London in late 2004. Since that time, Stanovic has won numerous prestigious prizes, mentions residencies, for his music, but always finds time to collaborate with Shah on film- based projects. To date, the collaboration has produced three internationally successful films that have toured the world, being screened at over 50 different film festivals, academic institutions, and public galleries. Part of this success lies in their unique blend of different media, which combine electroacoustic music and sound design with moving images and digital art. Their resulting works are, subsequently, more akin to “ visual music ”, with both sound and image fused into an organic whole. They have developed novel creative methods in which together they speak with one, unified, artistic voice. Their work has received many reviews over the years, with one writer referring to the work as “formidable - surprising, shocking and impressive” .

Filmography: Seek Assistance / Pollen / Epoh

A Film To Break Down Walls

Consisting of the entire canvas of the city of Berlin, as seen through the eyes of a camera lens, It Might Blow Up, But It Won’ t Go Pop coincides with the celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the Berlin wall coming down this November. The city now reflects a fusion of commerce and creative expression: young, challenging, progressive.

Timely and universal in its expansive subject matter, this new piece of work reflects the push-and-pull tension between fine art and advertising, exploring the necessary and positive ways in which they continually inform one another. The film explores themes of dependency traversing between the two forms, and mirrors the search for coherence that most artists and commercial artists strive for throughout their careers. Focusing on societal compartmentalizing and categorizing that leads to inevitable tension and the pressure to conform, a constant stream of fragmented, compelling, juxtaposed imagery and sound, shows us that we do not need to conform – that walls are there to be broken down, and ideas and expressions can be shared fluidly.

For Shah this realization that each form cannot completely survive without the other, is the creative force. Fine art demands to be seen and in order to do this, needs to be advertised, while advertising consistently looks toward art for influence, or to hijack ideas that meet the demand of its audience. This duality can be unified and celebrated. This necessary and relevant film strives to bring expression, and the work, to its highest peak where the two forms are unified. Commercial advertising and fine art living as one in a unified world.

Limited Edition Prints

Left:
Keeping It Real
Hahnemühle German etching paper
Fine art print on 310 g/qm
59 cm x 71 cm
Edition: 25

Right:
Won't Go Pop
Hahnemühle German etching paper
Fine art print on 310 g/qm
59 cm x 71 cm
Edition: 25

Sponsors & Partners

Artists
Olivia Lennon
Silvia Binda Heiserova

Curators
Renata Kudlacek
Nele Ouwens

BBA Gallery will participate in the curated Paper Section of Swab 2019 presenting Olivia Lennon & Silvia Binda Heiserova.

"Swab on paper" is a special program curated by Carolina Diez-Cascón, and it presents different artworks that share a common denominator: “Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. It is a versatile material with many uses, including writing, printing, packaging, cleaning, and a number of industrial and construction processes”.

Artists
Silvia Binda Heiserova
Giulietta Coates
Renata Kudlacek
Nele Ouwens
Susanne Piotter
Vishal Shah

Curators
Renata Kudlacek
Nele Ouwens

Poetics of Change is a touring exhibition that has premiered in Dubai in Spring 2019. BBA Gallery has gathered together a dynamic group of artists whose works draw upon the poetics of change and explore themes of transition and transformation. This bringing together of unique visions, culminates in a vibrant, thought-provoking show that encompasses painting, hand-printed silkscreen, photography, video art and sculpture.

Vishal Shah’s video piece, ‘Epoh’ (the word hope written backwards) tells the story of an adventurer’s journey from planet Earth into unknown areas of the Universe. Shah’s vision immerses the viewer into this extraordinary protagonist’s feelings as they encounter new territory. Renata Kudlacek’s hand printed silk screen prints emphasize the science of life through transitional states of metamorphosis, represented by a rich abundance of entangled flowers, leaves and butterflies. Giulietta Coates’ photographic interpretations of landscapes, form allegories for beauty and its loss, reminding us of the greatest transition we all face – that of our own mortality. Nele Ouwens’ paintings transform imagined encounters between humans, animals and nature into poetic environments that shift and change between realism and surrealism. Silvia Binda Heiserova’s paintings investigate the repetitive elements within the modern urban space by transforming them into colours and forms in order to question the possibility of change within power structures from a critical feminist perspective. Susanne Piotter’s fictional landscape prints and concrete architectural sculptures are an inventive visual manifestation of the dualism between nature versus culture and the role that it plays in the transition between past, present and future.

Sponsors

Artists
Mariam Abbas (UAE)
Fadi Attoura (Syria)
Houssam Ballan (Syria)
Majd Kurdieh (Syria)
Omar Najjar (Palestine)

Curator
Fann A Porter Gallery

Fann A Porter Gallery from Dubai presents emerging artists who were selected for their ability to capture human experiences and to offer a tangibility to the idiosyncrasies of life. Their works convey themes of love, friendship, hope, tragedy and family life through referencing observations of their surrounding realities in styles ranging from Op Art to Fantastic Art to Realism on paper and on canvas.

Narratives from the Middle East is a group exhibition that allows the real stories of the wide and varied region to shine through. So often pigeon-holed into stereotypes that are limiting, this selection of artists was chosen for their ability to shed light on the lesser known narratives.

Through unparalleled use of the humble pencil, Mariam Abbas draws every day urban scenes from her native Dubai, quite literally providing a window into the unseen aspects of daily life and also documenting the older parts of the city, which are under constant threat from urbanisation. From Syria, Fadi Attoura’s light, playful and bright work is quite the opposite to the view many people have of art from this war-torn nation and Majd Kurdieh masterfully uses childlike and innocent imagery to lift the spirits of his audience, whilst still responding to the crisis. Both these artists manage to show positivity in spite of the darkness cast across the region by conflict. Through the expressive eyes of his subjects, Houssam Ballan’s paintings capture the daily life of Syrians but his figures are emotive rather than realistic and thus capture the nature of memory and perception. Palestinian Omar Najjar uses broad brush strokes in his paintings, leading to a bold, expressionist style. His colour-filled and abstracted works reflect a kind of structured chaos with subjects ranging from personal experience as well as events and histories that others can relate to.

Together these narratives combine to show just one side of the richly nuanced story that constitutes the lives and experiences of those living in the Middle East. They also underline the importance of the traits that make us all human and lead to cultural connections and exchange no matter the nationality of the artist or the audience.

Fann A Porter is a contemporary art gallery based at The Workshop Dubai that represents a diverse selection of emerging international and regional artists. The gallery aims to nurture the burgeoning and dynamic contemporary art scene through quality exhibitions, non-profit events, auctions, and an active community program.

The exhibition is part of the Cultural Exchange Project between BBA Gallery and Fann A Porter Gallery, which is sponsored by Lufthansa and supported by the AHK German Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce.

Sponsors