Cadogan Gallery is delighted to announce Oggi, no performance, an exhibition of paintings by Emanuel Seitz and sculptures by Astrid Bauer. The Munich-based artist couple are exhibiting with Cadogan in Italy for the first time. Sharing the same studio, their work has evolved together and Seitz’s paintings will hang in dialogue with Bauer’s three-dimensional assemblages.
The title of the show references the notices often seen outside various locations during the Venice Biennale on the slower days between various performances - ‘Oggi (today), there is no performance’. There is a tongue-in-cheek naivety to the Italian/English phrase. More seriously, the idea is that both Seitz and Bauer’s work is about materiality, no performance or explanation is required.
The direct, high-contrast raw pigments used in Seitz’s paintings may seem simple but they are carefully considered. He sources the most pure pigment powders to create colour fields that are hard to look away from; one is confronted by them and they stimulate an immediate visual reaction. The painted marks are applied on top in free-flowing brush strokes in which one can see the influence of his time studying directly under Günther Förg. It is this contrast, between the background and the overlaying marks, that gives the power and harmony to these compositions.
Bauer’s wooden, stone and cellulose sculptures are assembled, intuitively placing these found and sourced objects into compositions that feel natural yet curated. The placement of these pieces inside and outside the gallery will punctuate the show but display the strong autonomy of each of the two artists.
About Emanuel Seitz
Colour and composition are the emphasis of Emanuel Seitz’s paintings. Reducing painting to its simplest vocabulary, his works are a celebration of paint and spatiality. Each colour is created from a pure pigment and is added to the canvas in corresponding blocks. The painted marks are then applied on top in free-flowing brush strokes in which one can see the influence of his time studying directly under Günther Förg.
It is this contrast, between the background and the overlaying marks, that gives the power and balance to these compositions. His artistic process is thus relieved of structural and compositional constraints as colour itself is the essence of form in his paintings. Emotion is an afterthought in his process yet his harmonious combinations allow the colours to sing, provoking an immediate visual reaction. While Seitz’s paintings seem simple, the chromatic combinations are deeply considered, presented in an elegant interplay between the homogeneous and the indistinct.
Emanuel Seitz studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts between 1996 and 2002. He has since lived and worked in Germany, exhibiting regularly throughout Europe. He is widely collected with works represented in major collections including the Lenbachhaus and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
About Astrid Bauer
Starting from 2014, Astrid Bauer initiated her academic journey at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, receiving guidance from Markus Oehlen and Gregor Hildebrandt. With a focus on the process of applying materials in her artistic endeavors, she shifted her attention away from the final outcome and turned it toward the intrinsic characteristics of the medium. This pivot inspired her to delve into the realm of three-dimensional artistic forms.
Astrid Bauer’s creative works, whether they take the form of objects or installations, embody a dual approach that harmonises intuition and precision. These artworks establish meaningful linkages with natural phenomena, fundamental physical concepts, and the fluidity of existence. They encapsulate dichotomies like fragility and strength, density and expansiveness, and even universality.
The constituent elements that come together to shape her sculptures merge in a way that provokes a sense of ambiguity—an invitation to consider whether to embrace the tension rooted in fragility or to perceive the overarching harmony. While the arrangement of bars in her creations presents a range of choices, it is not obligatory. The bars themselves can either provide structural stability or yield to collapse. Within their configuration coalesces disorder and organisation, mirroring the very essence of nature as a complete and interconnected entity.
