Franziska Reinbothe / Jan Wattjes – Spaces & Layers

20. Oktober – 24. November 2018/October 20 – November 24, 2018
Vernissage: Freitag, 19. Oktober 2018, 19-21 Uhr/Opening: Friday, 19. October 2018, 7-9 pm

Zusatzveranstaltung: Finissage – 24. November 2018, 15-18 Uhr

Fig. left (Detail): Franziska Reinbothe, Zacken, 2018, Acrylic on Canvas, 84 x 73 x 12 cm
Fig. right (Detail): Jan Wattjes, Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, London IV, 2017, Oil on Canvas 60 x 60 cm

With Franziska Reinbothe from Leipzig and Jan Wattjes from The Hague (NL) we present, for the first time, a dialogue between two artists whose works represent a radically reduced style. Both explore the question of what makes a picture into a picture and thereby reveal fascinating views and insights.

Franziska Reinbothe (born 1980 in Berlin), who studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig with the painter Ingo Meller, questions the logic and regularities of the classical materials of a painter in a self-sufficient and almost tangible way, constantly exploring the limits of her medium: Works like Zacken arise, in which she does not only break the pictures‘ spine, but also deforms the frame. The canvas is literally subjected to a sculptural intervention. So she turns, for example, the backside of her pictures into the front view, or crams additional cardboard and Dargonwatte (cotton wool) under the skin of the picture Dame mit gelüpftem Rock (Lady with a hatched skirt), which consists of acrylic and lacquer on nettle. Currently she creates complex colour spaces by literally painting with various synthetic fabrics and films in addition to the use of classical means. On top of that, further subtle shifts emerge through the reinforcement of folds by seams in the canvas.

Franziska Reinbothe will be present next year with works in the exhibition Neue Malerei in Deutschland (New Painting in Germany), which will be shown from 20.09.2019 to 19.01.2020 at the same time in the Kunstmuseum Bonn, in the Museum Wiesbaden and in the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, an accompanying publication is planned. Her works are included in the following collections et al.: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; Sammlung der Ege Kunst- und Kulturstiftung, Freiburg/Breisgau; Sammlung Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest; Sammlung Schloss Plüschow, Wismar; Sammlung Ebbers, Kranenburg and numerous private collections in Germany and abroad.

Jan Wattjes in cooperation with Livingstone Gallery, The Hague: Jan Wattjes (born 1981 in The Hague) studied there at the Academy of Fine Arts and at the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen, The Netherlands. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, for example in 2013 and 2016 from the Mondriaan Fund, and in 2016, he was nominated for the Royal Award for Modern Painting. Jan Wattjes, who originally comes from objective, figurative painting, often supplemented by video and installation, has expanded the vision of his current series of works into minimalism. His major theme is the reflection of his own artistic existence: through the fine layering of oil paint on canvas, he makes the real existing gallery space the sole subject of his works, as well as the relationship between artist, art and viewer. During his first residency in Berlin in 2014, in the Artist-in-Residence program of the Livingstone Gallery, The Hague, he first painted facades of Berlin galleries (e.g. Galerie Thomas Schulte) until he finally focused on the White Cube of international galleries. His pictorial investigation is essentially accomplished by using the classical means of painting. By reducing it to aura and silence, this White Cube becomes an imaginary space full of possibilities. Jan Wattje’s works reflect the realities and conditions of artistic practise.

His works are included in the following collections et al.: Gemeentemuseum Den Haag; Collection CBK Groningen; Park Collection Rotterdam; Collection Jeroen Princen Schiedam; The Hugo Brown Family Collection; Pieter & Mareike Sanders Collection and in other private collections.

Press

Berliner Zeitung, Kulturkalender, “Spaces & Layers”, Milchmädchens Rock, Ingeborg Ruthe (German)

Biographies by request