Katharina Ziemke
dal 6/9/2012 al 19/10/2012
Segnalato da
6/9/2012
Katharina Ziemke
Manzoni Schaper Gallery, Berlin
Institute for the Blind. On view 12 new pieces. Ziemke's atmospheric-capturing and at the same time impervious pictorial world draws the observer into its very own specific reality.
The gallery MANZONI SCHÄPER is pleased to announce the exhibition ‘Institute for the Blind’ with new works by
Berlin based artist Katharina Ziemke, opening on September 7, 2012.
‘Institute for the Blind’ will show a completely new series of twelve pieces. Ziemke’s atmospheric-capturing and
at the same time impervious pictorial world draws the observer into its very own specific reality.
Unpleasantly beautiful – that is your first impression on seeing Katharina Ziemke’s recent paintings and works on
paper. They show scenes that make an uncanny impression in an attractive manner, provoking the urge to turn
away even as they invite us to look closer.
Take the frontal portrait, with red-rimmed eyes, of Walter Yeo, or the painting of a young boy lying sick in bed
and staring back at the viewer. In both cases the artist’s gaze is voyeuristic, but the figures are depicted with
empathy. A double movement: the artist exposes her subjects to public attention, but the act of painting is also
a compassionate process.
Who is looking at whom? If we follow the eyes of the subjects, we must acknowledge that some information
remains outside the picture frame. We are looking at people who are, emphatically, being looked at, and we see
what effect this scrutiny has on them. One essential factor is the fall of light, which determines how natural or
artificial the subject looks, how stark or pleasant –and how many layers of meaning are visible.
The paintings express a belief in the outside of things. Ziemke’s detailed, realistic mode of painting concentrates
on the skin and on the surface of the world. On the coat of the motionless leopard on rocky ground, or the mottled
skin of the albino girl, or the sunlight that breaks a tree-lined valley into countless green facets. On the surface,
everything is readable.
Text: Jurriaan Benschop
Katharina Ziemke (born 1979 in Kiel) studied painting at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris
and at Kungliga Konsthögskola in Stockholm. In addition to her solo exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, New York and
Kiel, she participated in various international exhibitions, amongst others Zürcher Gallery Paris, Printemps de
September 2007 in Toulouse, a double exhibition with Emil Nolde at Musée de l’Abaye Sainte Croix / Les Sables
d’Olonne, Vilnius Accadamy of Arts and at Freies Museum Berlin.
Ziemke created chalk drawings featured in the stage setting of Thomas Ostermeiers new staging of Henrik Ibsens
Ein Volksfeind which received high praise after the world premiere at the theatre festival in Avignon in 2012. The
piece will celebrate its German premiere at Berliner Schaubühne on September the 8th, 2012.
artpress – Ute Weingarten
Elisabethkirchstraße 15 - 10115 Berlin Tel.: 030-48496350 artpress@uteweingarten.de
Opening: Friday September 7th, 6 - 9 pm
Manzoni Schäper Gallery
Potsdamer Straße 77-87 Haus H 10785 Berlin
opening hours:
Wednesday - Saturday 11 am - 6 pm