Strange thicket

Ute Wöllmann, oil painting | Ursula Commandeur, porcelain sculptures
9.12.2016 - 8.1.2017
Vernissage | Thursday, 8 December 2016 at 7 pm

Under the title "Strange thicket", with which Ursula Commandeur has labelled one of her sculptures, the artists present themselves Ute Wöllmann and Ursula Commandeur in a joint exhibition. "Strange thicket" triggers a multitude of associations of condensed graphic structures that the eye wants to decipher, which can be a leitmotif for a visit to the exhibition. Both artists draw inspiration for their art from the diversity of forms in nature. With Ute Wöllmann be it the naturally drawn lines of a lawn or the compositional arrangement of fruit in a hedge or the structure of a branching bush. With Ursula Commandeur it is the modular composition of complex cell organisms that can be found as organising principles in their art.
Ursula Commandeur's whimsical porcelain objects, reduced to the colours black and white, which emphasise the graphic quality through the independent life of the wires, enter into an exciting dialogue in the exhibition with the botanical elements and vegetative forms in Wöllmann's paintings, which are presented with great painterly verve.
Ute Wöllmann combines in her colourful paintings impasto oil paint with thin, delicate watercolour and achieves tremendous surface tension through the maximum range of thin glaze layers to impasto surface textures, as well as through the lines drawn with pastel chalks in the bold oil paint.
Ursula Commandeur uses wire to connect a large number of small individual modules made of white bisque porcelain to form the organic whole of a sculpture. The decision to reduce, namely to the shape of the individual modules and to the colours black and white, enables her to constantly reassemble these individual components into an inexhaustible cosmos of forms of whimsical objects and structures. Just as nature itself creates Ursula Commandeur the individual modules of a sculpture according to the same construction plan, which, due to the handmade production of a large number of pieces, naturally exhibit form deviations and bring tension to the modular sculpture. The wire with which the modules are connected is always a significant part of the sculpture, for example in the work "Flirrkasten" on the invitation card. Ursula Commandeur is not only inspired by the blueprints of nature in the creation of her forms, but also in her seemingly inexhaustible formal language, which has earned her international recognition and awards. Her works are reminiscent of corals, animals from the deep sea, but also of enlargements from the microscopic realm of nature, such as viruses and spherical multicellular organisms, yet they are completely fictitious and spectacular inventions that cause a sensation in the world of objects.

Ursula Commandeur
1958 - born in Dortmund, 1989 - A-levels, 2000 - graduated as a product designer at the FhN Krefeld since 1992 - working in her own workshop.
Since then numerous exhibitions at home and abroad and prizes, including 2000, 2006, 2010 "Gold Coast Ceramic Award", Australia; 2006 prizewinner "100 % Fantasie", competition Keramikmuseum Westerwald; 2007 - State Prize NRW, Manufactum; 2010 - prizewinner of "Neue Keramik", Internationale Keramiktage
Oldenburg and "Primer Premio", first prize in the "Cerco 2010" international competition, Spain
lives and works in Castrop-Rauxel

Ute Wöllmann
Born 1962 in Ravensburg / 1983-89 studied painting at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin with Professor Georg Baselitz / 1989 appointed master student; one-year scholarship from Volkswagen AG with the opportunity to live and work at the Künstlerhaus Meinersen / 1990 founding member of the artist group GANGart, joint projects until 2000 / 1992-2004 lecturer for painting and drawing at the Freie Kunstschule Berlin, resp. Freie Akademie für Kunst Berlin / 2002 Aldegrever Society residency scholarship for southern France / 2005 Founded and since then director of the Akademie für Malerei Berlin / 2010 Founding member of the producer gallery ROOT am Savignyplatz, its managing partner (2010 - 2014) / 2012 In January, the book "Über die Kunst erfolgreich Malerei zu studieren - Ein Lehrbuch" is published by Reimer Verlag Berlin / 2014 Founded and since then director of Galerie ROOT UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Lives and works in Berlin.
Numerous exhibitions at home and abroad.
Works in collections: Harvest Art Collection, Zoofenster, Waldorf-Astoria Berlin, Sparkassenstiftung Baden-Württemberg, Collection of the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin; Soziale Künstlerförderung Berlin

[r6_text icon="fa-map-marker"]Download press release[/r6_text]

[r6_text icon="fa-map-marker"]Download invitation card[/r6_text]