Summer Guests: DE VRIES | VAN OFEN | VERMEERSCH
This summer, three painters will make guest appearances at Galerie Ludorff, whose works oscillate between the boundaries of representation and abstraction. Their grouping creates a stimulating dialogue that exposes the poetic and sensual pictorial language of their work.
The opening will take place on Thursday, 13 June from 7 pm - 9 pm.
With cocktail reception
| herman de vries |
Since 1983 de vries has collected more than 9000 soil samples from all over the world. He has archived them in his "earth museum" and uses these for his artistic work. His application of the grinded soil to paper in a regulated, almost meditative structure is stylistically reminiscent of Informel procedures, although his oeuvre can hardly be classified as such. His method - collecting, studying and presenting objects - is close to scientific research, and his aim is to show the observer the beauty of nature in all its diversity.
herman de vries (*1931, Alkmaar, NL) lives and works in Kentzgau near Enschenau. Thanks to numerous solo and group exhibitions, particularly in the Benelux countries and France, he is now considered one of the best-known Dutch artists of the post-war period. He represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale (2015), which helped him to his international breakthrough.
| Michael van Ofen |
The point of reference in van Ofens work is classical 19th century landscape and portrait painting and the conceptual art of post-war modernism. He dissects motifs that are often declared trivial and kitschy, such as seascapes or hunting scenes, in order to elicit the patterns that shape our perception of art to this day. As a result, "pictures of possibilities" are created - paintings that on the one hand appear abstract, on the other hand continue to carry the memory of their role models within themselves and in this apparent incompleteness inspire the viewer to ever new associations.
Michael van Ofen (*1956, Essen) lives and works in Düsseldorf. In 2004 he was appointed professor for painting at the Kunstakademie Münster. His exhibition history is marked by relevant stations such as the Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (1991), the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2001) and the Kunsthalle Münster (2018). In 1989 he was awarded the Bremen Art Prize for his work.
| Pieter Vermeersch |
In his paintings Vermeersch investigates how the viewer experiences a painting - namely the dimensions of colour, space and time. Starting from photographic images of phenomena such as the monochrome backgrounds of old master portrait paintings, skies or rainbows, diffuse atmospheric images emerge in which every reference to time and place is absent. Through the representation of something formerly abstract, Vermeersch also undermines the art-historical demarcation that has divided painting into two camps since the beginning of modernism: Figuration and Abstraction.
Pieter Vermeersch (*1973, Kortrijk, BE) lives and works in Turin and Brussels. His works have already been shown in over 30 solo exhibitions worldwide, including the S.M.A.K., Gent (2003); the White Box, New York (2009) and the Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona (2016). Renowned collections such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the Dexia Art Collection, Brussels and the European Central Bank, Ffm list the Belgian artist in their portfolio.
