Under the motto INTERACTIVE MIX, 14 artists from Hamburg and the surrounding area will be presenting two of their works each in the GRACE DENKER GALLERY from November 8th, 2020, thus providing an insight into their creative work and making people curious to find out more. The different approaches, ideas and concepts create a special, inspiring experience.
In the following article, get to know the exhibitors better and gain an insight into their artistic work and artistic concepts. The exhibitors answer questions about their artistic process, how they start and what materials they use. They also explain what influence their art can have on the world.
Barbara Münstermann, Fabian Dömer, Gaby Lynn Flemming, Hilke-Ev Krögler, Jeannette Ehley, Maja Weller, Marion Düvel, Susanne Nentwich, Ute Kleist, Carsten Wolff and Gunda Oppermann comment in the interview.
Register for the vernissage at: https://www.artcraftliving.com
Barbara Münstermann
My artistic work is based almost exclusively on nature with all its phenomena and forms. It provides me with inspiration and is inspired by its great expressiveness and richness of color.
For me, it is not about pure depiction, but about a constant development and change of the original appearance, right up to abstraction. This creates new, exciting image spaces and views.
I paint almost exclusively with acrylic paints, and I also like to combine them with ink, chalk, wax and oil paints. I usually work experimentally and intuitively, and I prefer a glazed, overpainting style.
Due to the increasing disappearance of untouched nature in our world, I would like to use my pictures to remind us that we need the beauty and uniqueness of nature and the magic it contains as a mirror of ourselves. It points us to our origins. I want to touch people with my work and bring this to mind and make it tangible.
Fabian Dömer
I usually start my work very intuitively and quickly sketch the first outlines, which I usually add to or color with ink and watercolors or colored pencils. Sometimes I paint over discarded images and then make a new sketch on the resulting background. I am often inspired by the aesthetics of nature or natural forms, animals and plants, which can be found in my drawings - sometimes more, sometimes less abstracted.
Gaby Lynn Flemming
My current creative phase is shaped by the theater and the vibrant, colorful life in the neighborhood. There were completely different phases when I lived on the North Sea and only painted pictures of the sea and waves. I work from self-taken photos of situations that inspire me. A lot of it revolves around gender roles, gay lesbians, etc. Everything that is represented in life and especially in the neighborhood.
At the moment I use the 90x90 canvas format, i.e. square. After several pencil sketches I start to roughly outline the people on the canvas, then the play of colors begins, which arises spontaneously. My role model is the Austrian artist VOKA. My materials are brightly colored acrylic paints and canvases, at least for my current topic. They are as bright and dazzling as the people I want to portray. For other topics I use large formats and corresponding colors, e.g. for the sea. I want to portray the joy of life and the acting of people and actors and am fascinated by the changeability of the actors and the colorful, multifaceted life around them. I also want to challenge tolerance towards every form of human coexistence. Our time reminds me a little of the 1920s, 100 years ago, "Dance on the Volcano". That will be my next topic!
Hilke-Ev Krögler
I will put it in simple words: art can be beautiful (again). On the way to modernity, in my opinion, the aesthetic element of art has often been lost. In this respect, I see myself in the tradition of the autonomous artist who is looking for a larger whole in art. I usually approach my work with a very specific idea, but this can change completely in the course of the artistic process and lead to surprisingly new results. But that is the beauty of art. I am interested in the artistic use of gold and silver leaf. The precious metal is the only material that has the ability to capture light and transform it into mood. This is the closest to my idea of combining aesthetics and art at the moment. I work with historical techniques that I transform into the present and combine with new methods. First and foremost, I am a seeker when it comes to art. For me, art or creativity is the key to a brief, deeper understanding of the whole that surrounds us. Like everyone else, I seek to understand the world and whether there is something deeper hidden behind all of this. Schopenhauer once called this the contemplation of art. For a brief moment, a true work of art can allow us to look behind the veil of existence.
Jeannette Ehley
My pictures and works are intended to entice the viewer to go on a journey and to enable him to create an illusion, his own perception and also interpretation of the works.
There are no limits to the imagination, which is very important to me in my work, and so the viewer can find out for himself in the individual levels of each picture what he wants to see and how he interprets this for himself.
For this reason I only sign my pictures on the back.
The layering technique, which I primarily work with, gives the images different dimensions, which is intended to support the creative process, even in the counterpart.
I don't use templates for my work. It emerges from the paint and gets its expression from the individual, usually different, layers placed on top of each other.
I use high-quality acrylic paints on canvas, as well as ethanol, structural pastes and various tools such as foils.
Maja Weller
Sometimes I see my image in front of my eyes and sometimes my thoughts circle around a topic and I don't have a clear idea. Only when I'm in front of the canvas do my thoughts sort themselves out and it's like a bright, clear flow.
I work with different media (acrylic, watercolor, pigments, metal leaf, liquid acrylic) and different techniques. I like soft, blurred colors and the shine of gold tones.
I like images that question the fragility and instability of our seemingly safe reality. Time and memories always play a key role. I like to create dreamlike images where fiction and reality meet, meanings shift, past and present merge. Most of the time my work does not refer to recognizable forms. I always try to address a wide range of topics in a multi-layered way. This often results in the viewer easily making their own interpretations.
If things don't go the way we want them to, we may quickly become impatient and lose interest.
And sometimes absolutely everything doesn't go as planned, and we give up and stop fighting. Please don't give up! Keep going! Because the journey is the destination. And being happy with what you do is the way to success!
Marion Düvel
As an artist, I always have a concept that I am committed to. Long before I
Before I start creating something on canvas or paper, I have developed my concept through brainstorming, individual feelings, mental enthusiasm and love for the project. Without my own enthusiasm, I cannot create a work.
When I see my canvas or a blank sheet of paper, I already know what it will look like. That's so brilliant, because you're way ahead of the viewer and you're excited to see what the viewer will feel when you see the finished picture.
The materials I mainly work with are canvases, which I paint with acrylic paints using a spatula and brush technique. I also like to paint watercolors, which are then painted a little more spontaneously. I choose the material depending on whether something has developed in my head as a concept. It depends on the feelings I want to approach the work with.
What influence my art can have on the world? Well, I think that the viewer sees my pictures with their own eyes and can use the colors, motifs and materials for themselves. That will then be very multi-layered. Whether it concerns nature, your own life, joy or sadness, memories or wishes for the future, it will definitely bring a message. So far I have created many works that inspire people, whether through colors or motifs. It even caused friends and viewers to be creative themselves in order to take part in the creation of art. That is the greatest thing an artist could wish for. Motivation and positive thinking.
Susanne Nentwich
I am best at painting animals, especially dogs. When I have an idea, I usually sketch it out before putting it on canvas. Even if I have a photo.
I usually draw it with fine lines and then use mostly acrylic paints. I also like to try out new materials, such as modeling paste or watercolors. Depending on the colors of the animal or what should be in the foreground, as well as personal feelings, I decide whether it will have a single-colored, dark, light or colorful background.
The painting "Love knows no boundaries" is intended to bring a smile to people's faces in these difficult times. Especially because the story behind it also makes you smile.
Many people have a close bond with their pets, and often there are moving stories associated with the animal.
For this reason I really enjoy painting animals.
The joy in the eyes when you present a painting of a pet to the animal's owner is overwhelming.
Ute Kleist
A blank canvas or a blank sheet of paper no longer scares me. I intuitively choose colors that touch me in that moment and it starts automatically when I work abstractly. I immerse myself completely in this process and then intervene when something wants to show itself and reinforce the impression. With the more figurative works, which often reflect my love of nature, I am often outside, letting myself be inspired or capturing my impressions photographically. It is important to me that it is not a "representation" of what I see, but that a KLEIST emerges in my perception.
In the same way that I choose colors intuitively, I often try out different materials. I usually work on large format canvas as well as on paper. I like to alternate between acrylic, oil and mixed media. To set a focus, I work with acrylic markers and fineliners, inks, etc. I love the tension and the play between painting and graphics.
Since my work not only shows the sunny side of life in terms of ART and subject matter, I hope that people will look at it and engage with my art. I also hope that it will raise awareness of how we treat nature and how our behavior affects our environment. Works such as "Waldesruh", "Metamorph", "Kokon", "Ich Wünsche" etc. impressively reflect what touches me. I feel that we artists have a voice. We communicate it nonverbally on canvas and it is important to me to use my art to make visible what defines us, namely HUMANITY and LOVE.
Gunda Oppermann
My artistic concept is primarily based on abstract painting but also landscape painting. In abstract painting, my ideas come from my own experiences or experiences of those around me. From the feelings associated with them. I try to bring this feeling onto the canvas. I have a rough picture in mind, but allow the picture to develop freely.
When I want to produce something without being based on an event, I just have the colors and materials in mind that I want to work with, which I then put on the blank canvas/paper and it is very exciting to see what emerges in the end.
I work mainly with acrylic paint, structural paste and structural gel, depending on what effect the work is intended to achieve. Materials play a big role for me when it comes to incorporating effects and depth into the work.
Art connects. I try to put the feelings on the canvas and it is nice when people can understand and empathize with why I painted this or that work the way I did when they hear the title of the painting. My message is simply that creativity knows no boundaries and life should be viewed in a colorful way.
Carsten Wolff
I work intuitively, that means the idea and thus the whole is in my head
available. Then comes the size determination and execution. In some cases
it is lightning fast. The idea also determines whether I work with a brush, spatula or fingers. I rarely change the work afterwards. Guided by the feelings, I have a wider range of styles such as minimalism, impressionism, expressionism, avant-garde or as I call it: freestyle.
The focus is usually on the person in his environment, either integrated or detached. Every artist should be aware that others will judge and classify his works. His own influence is thus limited to a minimum. All that remains is the unifying feeling of the work or art as a whole.
Duration of the exhibition: 08.11.2020 to 10.12.2020
Location: GRACE DENKER GALLERY, Hammerbrookstraße 93, 20097 Hamburg.
Opening: 08.11.2020 at 14:00
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