Review:

News from Galerie Neu in Berlin

Four young German artists in Galleri Stalke show what’s happening on the Berlin scene.

Art
By Mai Misfeldt

To show you what’s new: the title of this exhibition could hardly be more fitting. Four young German artists show their work at Galleri Stalke. Together, the works give a broad yet precise insight into the Berlin art scene. The gallery is located in a former barn in the artistic area of Auguststrasse, which is now home to Charity St. On display here is what Neu—one of the most prominent galleries for young German art—has to offer.

This exhibition is thus a chance to see, from a Danish perspective, what kind of impressions and inspirations are shaping the rapidly developing Berlin art scene.

Gunter Reski from Hamburg stems from what is called the Kippenberger school, which he does not hide in his drawing collages. These are surprising solutions combined with a realistically recognizable space that captivates him. Not surreal, but rather extreme perspectives of the motif—an approach for visual and linguistically conditioned meaning formations.

This extreme perspective can be seen in his attempt to capture a kiss from the inside. Here, the viewer’s position is the red interior of a mouth. Another drawing shows the interior of another red mouth in a mirror, where the throat becomes infinite.

Viewed from a hanging position in the mirror, a sensual yet tightly drawn depiction of a symbolic female body unfolds. This view stretches from delicate neck vertebrae to feminine curves rendered with almost no detail. A Japanese-like touch mixes graphic elements with painterly expression.

Esther E. Heinrich’s sculpture, titled “Esther,” is named after a collector who purchased the first version. Thilo Heinzmann from Frankfurt works in a conceptual language. His works, which can vary infinitely, lift painting from the two-dimensional position off the wall and show the sculptural potential of forms in space.

In this instance, he has created a cashier’s counter with painted surfaces—a homage to the mundane, everyday space while inserting his own abstract take on existence. These sculptures can thus be expanded infinitely.

Forms, therefore, it is not illogical to find an empty canvas bag in Stalke. "Fill in with your own imagination," as Köpcke said—or your own sofa!

Distorted Spaces

Katharina Wulff from Berlin paints heavily and in thick layers. There is a Nordic existential tone in her distorted spaces, where almost helplessly formed figures emerge like overexposed memories. One can clearly sense her attraction to aesthetically resonant painting, which she keeps in check with large provocative dead areas.

In some quite small, overpainted images, she has practically scraped through the thick paint to the simple, lonely motif.

Manfred Pernice's works, consisting of quite small models, larger executions, and sketches, require a little space to be approached. Pernice, who lives in Berlin, is fascinated by urban transitional zones where the city's space ebbs out into industrial or suburban zones and where one finds strange remnants of leftover buildings.

His small models are made of cardboard, the larger ones of raw veneer. Their primitive appearance gives them a transient quality; they look adapted to their surroundings and capable of changing if necessary. They resemble something to live in, but there are no doors, and the entrance, if there is one, leads nowhere.

They stand at the intersection of object and architecture. Often, he attaches images from other places to his objects, thereby referencing another space entirely—an entirely different location.

This is only a small exhibition that could well have aimed for a larger presentation. But it is a good idea as a way to introduce the galleries of our neighboring countries, which alone means that the next time one goes to Berlin, they will recognize and seek out Galerie Neu.