Two Works at Hamburger Kunsthalle
Dear art lovers,
I would like to draw your attention to two museum exhibitions currently featuring some of my works. At the Hamburger Kunsthalle, as part of the "ISA MONA LISA" exhibition, two pieces are on display in one of the galleries; these were recently gifted to the museum by Hamburg-based collector Peter Hess. They were originally part of the 2005 exhibition "Geschichtenerzähler" (Storytellers) at the Kunsthalle’s Galerie der Gegenwart.
The painting on the left, Vermeidung des Bösen (Avoiding Evil), depicts an elderly woman navigating a landscape of ruins with the help of a dowsing rod. Based on a press photograph showing the demolition of prefabricated housing blocks in East Germany, the image has—twenty years later—unfortunately taken on a far broader, global context. Today, we collectively navigate the ruins of crumbling certainties, bombarded daily by media images of devastated landscapes on a far more horrific scale.
Vermeidung des Bösen (Avoiding Evil), 2005 , 230 ×300 cm oil on canvas
The second painting at the Kunsthalle, Fright Freight, shows two young people punting a rowboat across an inland waterway; in the background, bathed in twilight, the Viking Tower in Schleswig looms ominously. Omen or coincidence? This leads to the second exhibition I wish to highlight.
Fright Freight, 2005, 200 × 180 cm, oil on canvas
new Gallery of Modern Art At schloß Gottorf
In Schleswig, not far from that leaning Viking Tower, the new Gallery of Modern Art recently opened at Gottorf Castle. My 2022 painting Aurora Folks is currently on display there alongside fantastic Expressionist masterpieces. This painting offers a perhaps more optimistic glimpse of a new sunrise. It depicts three female figures—seen from behind—looking out over a landscape resembling a fjord, rendered in a style that dissolves almost into abstraction. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend visiting these exhibitions in person. The aura of the artworks cannot be replaced by words, let alone digital pixels.
Aurora Folks, 2022, 230× 190 cm, oil and acrylic on canvas
