COLLAGE ON VIEW
Age of Collage 2
at Feinkunst Krüger in Hamburg, Germany
3-23 March 2019
Curators Dennis Busch and Ralf Krüger present new, contemporary collage work by thirty-three international artists. This is the second time that Feinkunst Krüger has gathered the crème de la crème of collage artists, this time including a few stars, such as Hamburg painter Werner Büttner, German collagist Kerstin Stephan, and Americans Eli Graven, Charles Wilkin, and James Gallagher. Emerging stars on display include Valero Doval, Ashkan Honavar, Bill Noir, and Natalie Huth. With these artists, the exhibition can justifiably be called the “State of the Art” of modern collage.
Although collage techniques were developed over 100 years ago, they resonate so well in our current time like never before. Artists collect visual materials, combine and then abstract them so that the artist’s personal vision becomes clear. At the same time, the resulting work mirrors the collected visual memory of humanity, because collage references not only artistic works and techniques, but also scientific illustrations or set pieces from pop culture and erotica.
While illustration, painting and photography fundamentally influence the genre, collage is often abstract, sometimes shaped by Constructivism or with references to Surrealism or Dadaism. Like no other technique, collage offers artists so much space for multiple artistic standpoints. This new, compositional freedom both triggers and resolves contradictions. For an artist, collage is the perfect tool to introduce a dream-like time shift.
Past, present and future are perfected under the perfidious care of collage artists, who create a magical brew that, in its unsparing results, creates the dissolution of time itself. Out of this “turned off” time comes transformation and change. Collage allows the artist, as well as the viewer, to make time jumps through different dimensions. Using this kind of infinite physicality, modern collage artists are astronauts on a never fully completed journey into the world of boundless fantasy, armed with scissors, knives, and glue.
The thirty-three artists in the exhibition come from France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and include: Fehmi Baumbach, Beni Bischoff, Matthieu Bourel, Jono Boyle, Martin Bronsema, Paul Burgess, Dennis Busch, Julia Busch, Werner Büttner, Jorge Chamorro, Isabelle Cordemans, Eli Craven, Valero Doval, Dr.Me, Lola Dupre, James Gallagher, Sebastian Haslauer, Ashkan Honavar, Natalie Huth, Seb Jarnot, Philippe Jusforgues, Geoff J Kim, Max-O-Matic, Bill Noir, Bryan Olson, Kenny Runners, Magdalena Rysopp, Claudia Söchting, James Springall, Kerstin Stephan, Nil Ultra, Joe Webb, and Charles Wilkin.
(Translated and adapted from the gallery’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Feinkunst Krüger
Kolhöfen 8
20355 Hamburg, Germany
+49 4031792158
Hours:
Thursday-Friday, Noon-7PM
Saturday, Noon-6PM
and by appointment
Image from the “Aerofauna Series” by Valero Doval
20″x13.8″; screenprint
Courtesy of Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg