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8th Oberbaumbrücke Open Air Gallery

This Sunday, the fourth of July is the 8th Oberbaumbrücke Open Air Gallery in Berlin and for myself the third time I’ve participated with my artwork. My friend and colleague Micha Colory Krebs will also be at the festival also.

The faux medieval bridge over the River Spree that runs through the heart of Berlin, is closed off on Sunday to accommodate 100 artists and their artwork. The event always pulls large crowds usually totally about 20,000 for the day. With such large public attendance its reputation has been spreading far and wide.

I will heading down to the bridge early on Sunday to set up a stand. It takes a little while as everything has to be secured against the wind. I will be taking a couple of my studio easels so I can display more of my paintings.

I will be bringing my latest artworks, as well as a few older ones that are still to be found hanging on my studio walls and are in need of new homes.

The weather bureau is predicting hot and sunny weather, so it should make a great day out for visitors.

The event opens to the public at 10am and finishes at 10pm. So there’s ample time for you come by and visit me on the bridge.

www.openairgallery.de

Exhibition visitors peer at Siegfried Zademack‘s artowrk.

It was the a last minute snap decision to travel from Berlin to the Rheinland Pfalz, the opposite end of the Germany. I wanted to attend the Art Imaginär exhibition to see some artists I knew and to try to meet some of the people behind the illusive Labyrinthe Gessellschaft. Everything magically fell into place and I arrived in Mußbach on Saturday.

Mußbach is wine growing village which has the oldest vineyard in the region, the Herrenhof. It was peak tourist season as people flocked to the region to sample the new wine. Almost every available courtyard was full with people eating and drinking. So finding a place to stay is impossible and finding a place to eat is a challenge.

The Herrenhof is the venue for the Art Imaginär exhibition. While it may now have a great role as the cultural center of Mußbach, it wasn’t always so. The local council were wanting to demolish the buildings as they were in a serious state of disrepair and they had no interest investing in the buildings. So the local residents took it upon themselves with their own time and funds to renovate the buildings.

The exhibition opening was Sunday, but I visited the exhibition on the Saturday anyway as I knew the gallery would be full with people and I would be preoccupied with talking and photographing the exhibition. I had wanted to catch my friend Peter Gric, but he had already delivered his artwork and left for the day, so instead I looked around the exhibition.

Otfried Culmann, conversing with Wolfgang Harms, in front of Viktor Safonkin‘s artwork.

The exhibition was curated by artist Otfried Culmann who has already organized a number of such events. This particular exhibition was three in one. The main exhibition consisted of 75 artists from 10 different countries, from the well known such as Fuchs and Dali, to lesser known, all working in Fantastic Art. Second was the Woldermar Winkler exhibition. Finally was the exhibition of a special selection of Fantastic Art from the Westermann collection. One of the special things about the Westermann collection is that all of the artists are requested to create artworks in the same format, but they are permitted free reign in those constraints.

After looking at the exhibition I started to chat with some of the people that were there, and discovered that they were none other the organizers themselves. So it came to pass that I sat down to tea and coffee with Otfried Culmann, Gustav Adolf  Bähr, the chairman of the Herrenhof association, Gerhard Habarta, the publisher of the “Lexicon der phantastischer Künstler” and Lukas Kandl who organizes the L’Ange Exquis project. Later artist Michael Engelhardt came and joined us. Slowly, I was discovering who was who. It was also an opportunity for me to look through a number of the catalogues and including the “Lexicon der phantastischer Künstler”.

That evening we all met again with everybody’s partners in a fascinating restaurant that used to be an artist’s residence. The front of the house was decorated with stone sculpture, and various surfaces inside had been painted with all manner of pictures. With our large group and it being peak tourist season sitting around the table was very cosy. On offer was all manner of local cuisines and of course, local wines. We all had to be bright eyed and bushy tailed, looking our best for the exhibition opening in the morning so we did not make it a long evening.

I must heartily thank Kurt Kaiser and Gabriele Humborg, who devote much of their free time to the Herrenhof, for their generous hospitality and having me stay with them. It proved to be a full house with the Kandls staying with them also. I very much appreciate how accommodating they were.

The grand day of the exhibition opening arrived, along with a few more of the artists whom I had not seen on the Saturday, such as Bruno Weber, Peter Gric, Viktor Safonkin, Siegfried Zademack and Wolfgang Harms. I think Otfried Culmann and the other organizers were very pleased and relieved when the show finally opened. The hall above the exhibition was packed to capacity with the exhibition receiving some 500 visitors on the opening day. There were also a number of favourable articles of a good size in the press. So exhibition proved be a great success.

The day was a superb opportunity for the artists to meet each other, make new friendships and renew old ones. Many had traveled a long way, seldom seeing each other except at various exhibitions, and perhaps contact over the internet. It was a valuable time to exchange information and ideas, fostering the growing sense of community amongst Fantastic and Visionary artists.

To this end, the Fantastic Art project in Viechtach was mentioned several times. I discovered that there was already dialogue between Viechtach and Mußbach and that a delegation, including the Mayor of Viechtach and artist Reinhard Schmid would be visiting the Art Imaginär exhibition the following week to discuss the possibility of the exchange of projects or the collaboration thereof. If such things come to fruition, then future is indeed exciting for Fantastic Art providing a wealth of opportunities on top of those already offered by events such as Art Imaginär at the Herrenhof Mußbach.

Peter Gric and Siegfried Zademack

Art-Imaginär

Open from the 27th of September to the 25th of October 2009

Herrenhof
Mußbach
An der Eselshaut 18
D-67435 Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
Germany

Featured artists:

Peter Ackermann, Bernhard Apfel, Utz Arnoldi, WESSI Benderlieva Karlhofer, Myriam Bat-Yosef, Nicolaus zu Bentheim, Johfra van den Berg, Serge Brignoni, Alice Buis, Agustin Cardenas, Fabricio Clerici, Otfried H. Culmann, Salvador Dali, Doremi, Tine Duffing & Cocoon, Edgar Ende, Leonor Fini, Ernst Fuchs, Joachim Geissler-Kasmekat, Walter Grab, Peter Gric, Friedrich Gross, Fabius von Gugel, Joe Hackbarth, Veronika Hagen, Wolfgang Harms, Rudolf Hausner, Claus Dietrich Hentschel, Werner Holz, Herrmann Hoormann, Fritz Horauf, Emy Hudecek, Wolfgang Hutter, Michel-Claude Jullian, Edgar Jene, Heinz Jung, Lukas Kandl, Helmut Kies, Karl Korab, Edgar Landherr, Hannelore Langhans, Barbara Lenz, Ellen Lorien, Jaime Makinde, Roberto E. Matta, Max von Moos, Hans-Peter Muller, Alexandra Muller-Jontschewa, Hellmut Neukirch, Wolfgang Ohlhauser, Erik Olson, Wolfgang Peuker, Dieter Peukert, Silvia Quandt, Tamara Ralis, Kurt Regschek, Carl-W. Rohrig, Victor Safonskin, Hundertwasser, Dietrich Schuchardt, URSULA Schultze-Bluhm, Ludwig Schwarzer, Cornelia Simone-Bach, Manfred Sillner, Ernst Steiner, Piero Strada, Charles F. Soehnee, Esaias Thoren, Elke Wassmann, Bruno Weber, Woldemar Winkler, Paul Wunderlich, Siegfried Zademack & Mac Zimmermann.

View from Harzer Str of the former piano factory that was later to become Atelierhaus Mengerzeile. (1967, Landesbildstelle Berlin)

For the past year I’ve had my studio here in the Atelierhaus Mengerzeile. And the time has come again for our Tag der Offene Ateliers (open studio day).

So I’ll be here with my studio open for all and sundry to visit, so you can see what I’m up to and what new artwork is on my easels. Yes, multiple easels, five. After last month I finally have all of my London studio materials here in Berlin. Many thanks to Paul Barnett, Daniel Worth and Pierre Sievers for helping me out with unloading and carrying my things up to the fourth floor!

The studio is looking decidedly full at the moment with all of the boxes that I need to unpack, sort and then store. So there is a bit of preparation before the open studio day.

The photo I’ve included with this post is the Atelierhaus Mengerzeile in the Communist East German times, and is a view from the West to the East across the No-Man’s-Land where they were later to erect the wall. So there is a little history attached to the building. On display will also be a photo exhibition of the building and the wall during this time.

Hope you can make it to visit my studio.

Saturday 3rd of October 2009
3pm – 10pm

Atelierhaus Mengerzeile
Mengerzeile 1-3
12435 Berlin
Germany

atelierhaus-mengerzeile.de

Art fairs, I’ve seen a few of them. The Berliner Kunstsalon I have attended a number of times, it’s first two years and now this year. In the beginning there was much fresh and interesting work from many of the local artists who were marginalized in the Berlin art market. However since then it has transformed into the same banal copycat pap seen at all of the other art fairs.

It’s one saving grace this year was a generous soul who gave me his entrance card as he was leaving. He obviously took pity on anyone paying the eight euro entrance fee for an art fair that was totally underwhelming.

Soft gay porn seemed to make a popular showing along with the ubiquitous hastily assembled installations. While many of these mundane artworks show no hint of any thought, you of course would be derided by the art intelligentsia as ignorant and uneducated.

My friend Garth Gregory attended the opening and confirmed that the Berlin art circle spent their time discussing concepts. This is being apparent by the lack of time devoted artworks, hastily shot photos, out of focus and poorly photoshopped; offering the most inane of scene or topics, lacking any sense of composition. If you want a real challenge, try and look at the leatherman who has his todger out, and try to keep a straight face.

Technique is handwork, and therefore out, out of fashion, out of the circle of whit and intelligence of the postmodern contemporary art world. This is painfully evident in the paintings on show. No one dared raise their standards above anything mediocre lest they be labeled a craft worker. If you work with your hands too much you obviously don’t spend enough time thinking, and therefore too much time wanking.

Anja Brinkmann who attended the Berliner Salon with me made and astute observation, as we took a restive pause from trekking from floor to floor of the old power substation, warming our bones and hands on the few heating radiators to be found in that cold building. She reflected that if art reflects the zeitgeist, then what we had just viewed was indeed a mirror to our current world situation. Currently we face a crisis, (one of many) in an international finance system that is built on nothing tangible, only concepts and possibilities; the unmanifest, in short, nothing.

The populace is so anesthetised from the media assault we live in, where anything is viewable and entertainment now, shock and outrage garners little more than a whimper. Any fetish may be now labeled as art. Thus we are left with soulless banality as the pinicle of contemporary art that needs the constant assistance of concept, a blizzard of words, which like the natural phenomenon, obscures any sight and direction.

Should you be brash enough to state the obvious and name it as the emperor’s new clothes, then obviously your intellectual rigeur and wit is below par. There is a joke that is being had and snickered behind the hands of the arts intelligentsia. The joke is that clueless people looking to invest in the next big thing will buy anything, and the quest is who can exceed the others with the biggest price tag for the most pointless things sold. Banalities and whimsical curiosities are now equated with the Old Masters, because were they not also interested in profiting from their patrons who were also following fashion dictates?

All jokes repeated conceitedly, bore the audience. And this was evident as the Berliner Salon audience filed through each room barely pausing to view or engage any of the artworks. The party was over on the opening night as was evident from the dull looks in the eyes of gallerists and artists who stood listlessly by their artworks. We’d missed the party and missed the joke, by expecting so see “serious” artwork and anything of note.

Lethal Lilly and Hedoluxe pose at Dr. Sketchy Berlin

Tired of life drawing? Tired of drawing the same potatoes that recline on a couch? On Saturday Anja and I sought out different schooling for our figure drawing needs. We enrolled in Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, closeted away in a small club, hidden from street view, in the Graefekiez of Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Dr. Sketchy is both a burlesque cabaret and life drawing event originating in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the Lucky Cat. It was founded in New York City in 2005, by illustrator and former artist’s model Molly Crabapple and illustrator A.V. Phibes.

Our headmaster for the evening was the very dazzelling Hedoluxe and his assistant Laura. Hedoluxe’s stated mission is to save you from boredom, ugly clothes, and to make your life beautiful. Our models for the evening were Clea Cutthroat, Lethal Lily, Mad Kate.

Thrown in to the mix was Tin Tin. He wasn’t there as one of the performers, but rather like the rest of us, to sketch the evenings proceedings. Yes, you did read correctly, Tin Tin. It was the living breathing Tin Tin, the only thing he was missing was the little white dog.

While the evening took on something approximating normal life drawing sessions, starting with shorter poses, and then progressing to longer ones, it was intersperced with burlesque acts by our models. There were also a number of small prizes given away in drawing competitions.

All in all it was a fun relaxing evening and a refreshing change from the normal run of the mill life drawing sessions. If you google Dr. Sketchy, you will find him in various cities through out the world.
There could be one around the corner from you.