ART COLOGNE

DOUGLAS ALLSOP

STEPHAN BAUMKÖTTER

JILL BAROFF

HARTMUT BÖHM

FRANK GERRITZ

JULIA MANGOLD

INGO MELLER

FRANCOIS MORELLET

WINSTON ROETH

KLAUS STAUDT

BEAT ZODERER

MESSE KÖLN

18 - 22 APRIL 2007

DOUGLAS ALLSOP

British artist Douglas Allsop latest work is from his current series “Reflective Editor”. Allsop’s acrylic planes explore elaborate and integrate systems of grids. The work exhibited at Art Cologne is part of a new body of work to be exhibited at the Kunstverein Eislingen in June.

Works from the Reflective Editor series are currently exhibited in Douglas Allsop solo - exhibited at the Mondriaanhuis in Amersfoort, Holland. Solo exhibitions at the Kunstverein Eislingen and at the Gallery in London are scheduled in June and October.

Reflective Editor, 6 Rows, 35 Vertical Slots (S), 2007Cast Acrylic

160 x 120 x 0.5 cm

STEPHAN BAUMKÖTTER

Stephan Baumkötter’s paintings remain in a state of infi nite refl ection. Each painting is a carefully constructed assemblage of colour-spaces. Baumkötter applies paint to the canvas using a variety of coloured oil-sticks; colours are mixed directly on the canvas and merged into modulating layers of paint. At fi rst glance, fi nished paintings often appear monochrome, slowly revealing their subtly changing character as different colours and tones appear from underlying layers. It is this ambiguous quality of the work that afford Baumkötter’s paintings an animated appearance.

Stephan Baumkötter has recently completed a residency at the Albers Foundation in Bethany. During 2007, new works by Stephan Baumkötter will be the subject of a series of solo - exhibitions in Cologne, London and Stavanger. The artist has shown in numerous institutions and museums across the world. Recent solo exhibitions include shows at the Albers Museum Quadrat in Botrop as well as the Goethe Institute in Brussels and New York. The artist’s fi rst solo exhibition at the Gallery is scheduled to take place during May – June 2007.

Untitled, 2007Painstick on canvas

75 x 45 cm

JILL BAROFF

Jill Baroff’s series of “Tide Drawings” are often described as patterns of place. At Art Cologne we will present recent circular works depicting the tidal change in New York Harbour that occurred during the Winter and Spring of 2006. The underlying data of both works are from the same source and are derived from water level readings at six-minute intervals along the coast.

The numerical data can take the shape of grids, horizontal stacks of lines, as depicted on the opposite page or circle-drawings, as shown on the next page.

The artist lives and works in Brooklyn New York, she regularly exhibits in the US and Europe. Recent installations include group exhibitions at the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart and the Kunstverein Eislingen, as well as an exhibition entitled “The Shape of Time” at the Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim in Neuhaus, Germany. The artist’s second solo show with the Gallery is currently on view.

NEXT PAGECircle Tide Drawing, New York City Harbour (Winter), 2007Pigmented Ink on Japanese gampi mounted on Rag107.3 x 107.3 cm

Circle Tide Drawing, New York City Harbour (Spring), 2007Pigmented Ink on Japanese gampi mounted on Rag107.3 x 107.3 cm

Tide Drawing, Los Angeles, 2005Watercolour on Japanese gampi mounted on Rag

82.5 x 142.8 cm

JILL BAROFF

HARTMUT BÖHM

Gregory Volk recently noted, “Böhm hides nothing, obscures nothing, and lays everything right before you, but still his peculiar mix of rigorous order and ever-shifting fluctuations, pattern and variations, materials and emptiness, activates the whole space and winds up being downright cathartic.” 1

Raumstruktur 39, 1971 - 80Plexiglas, Wood and Paint

102 x 51 x 51 cm

1 Gregory Volk, System With Surprises.Hartmut Böhm, Ausdehnung und Begrenzung. Das extreme Eine und das extreme Andere. Stiftung für konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen, Germany 2000

HARTMUT BÖHM

HF 10, 1965Wood, Perspex, Magnets, Polystyrol, Astralon and Electric engine

47 x 47 x 7 cm

FRANK GERRITZ

Frank Gerritz works in pencil on mdf are characterised by their razor-sharp compositions. The works capture light and at the same time reflect light as well as surrounding colours. Gerritz’s objects fall somewhere between drawing, painting and sculpture; rather than occupying one discipline the works’ multi-faceted qualities give the objects an indeterminate state, which affords them an undeniable presence.

Recently Gerritz has started a new body of drawings on invitation cards, which he has been collecting for a number of years. It’s here that Gerritz allows himself a certain degree of playfulness. A less strict form of expression enters the work and affords it a new informality and humour. What at first started as a side project to the larger works on aluminium, has over the past two years developed into a key aspect of the artist’s work.

Entitled “Invitational Invitations” these new drawings explore three main themes - editing, hiding and deleting information. An adopted image or graphic design takes on a new lease of life, consciously allowing for recognisable features. At Art Cologne we will be exhibiting drawings on invitation cards from London galleries.Invitation cards are a central element in every gallery’s publicity work. They are often the first point of contact for a collector with an artist’s work. Unconsciously the imagery carried by these cards enters a common pictorial heritage. Turning the cards into precious objects, Gerritz elevates them to a work of art in their own right.

Works by Gerritz have been exhibited widely. The artist had two solo exhibitions with the gallery in London. A mid-career restrospective at the Neues Museum Weserburg in Bremen is scheduled for October 2007.

Darkside, 2007Pencil on MDF

60 x 60 cm

FRANK GERRITZ

Nightlight (Conceptual Forms), 2005Paintstick on Printed Paper20 x 25.7 cm

Logic (Nightride), 2005Paintstick on Printed Paper

Diptych, each 17.6 x 17.6 cm

JULIA MANGOLD

Both their sensuous surfaces and the shifting levels of the juxtaposed rectangular steel elements characterize Julia Mangold’s sculptures. The work exhibited at Art Cologne is composed of three sets of four elements. The interplay of volumes gives the progression an animated appearance. As the light changes during the day, the surface changes in colour from a cool blue metal tone to a deep dark red patina.

In a recent interview Julia Mangold commented thus on her work: ”Repetitive form in variations, movement within static patterns. These are delicate and simple and rich objects. I believe beauty is important.”

O.T. 4.1.01 + O.T. 2.1.01 + O.T. 6.1.01, 2001Waxed Steel

200 x 350 x 11.5 cm

INGO MELLER

There is a beautiful simplicity about Ingo Meller’s work. Meller paints his work following a number of self-imposed rules: The canvases are bare, irregularly shaped, always unframed and attached directly to the wall, into which they extend, encompassing the architectural space. The pigments are ready-made, applied direct from the tube and precise descriptions of these colours form the titles of the painting. Nothing is apparently left to chance and yet Meller uses paint in a way that is gestural, subjective and sensuous.

Ingo Meller lives and works in Leipzig, where he teaches as Profesor for Painting at the Academy of Visual Arts. He is also the Dekan of his faculty. A solo show at the Gallery is scheduled for the second half of 2008

Alt Hollandviolettgrau Scheveningen 208 & Zinnobergrün Hell Williamsburg& Permanentgrün Hell Gambin, 2000

Oil on canvas69.7 x 49.2 cm

FRANÇOIS MORELLET

Recent neon works by François Morellet are increasingly ruled by systems of chance . This is certainly apparent in the work exhibited at Art Cologne. “Lunatique neonly 4 quarts nº 15” from 2005. The central element is a circular canvas, four equally sized quarter circle length neon tubes are assembled by a system based on the principle of π. The composition further incorporates an element of chance. The idiosyncratic nature of this work is by no means random; however it gives the piece a playfulness that makes it a true masterpiece.

Lunatique neonly 4 quarts nº15, 2005Acrylic on canvas on wood, 4 quater circle white neon tubes

158 x 120 cm

WINSTON ROETH

“Roeth’s work includes three forms: grids, and what he calls “landscapes” and “containment paintings.” We see even in the internal heterodoxy of mathematic, historical and descriptive titles something resistant to any theory that would predict one’s experience of them. Indeed, Roeth has formed a practice out of following the painting’s “urge”—an inherent power and identity that he finds through his process. A finished painting—its immanence—is not just the accumulation of layers of paint or the sum total of his method. The format is laid down, but the painting emerges through the process of building layers of paint. Sometimes it gets lost, and he has to find it; in all cases it changes a lot from beginning to end. ..., Roeth is always trying to exceed his discipline, to get to that place just out of reach. At that edge he explores new territory, and it is mercurial, changing, moving. In this way his work is always evolving. He likes to say that he’s making it up as we all go along, hurtling through time and space.”

Extract from DRY LIQUID EDGE OF EXPERIENCE an essay by Alison Green published in the catalogue accompanying Roeth’s recent exhibitions at Gallery N. von Bartha, London and Galerie von Bartha, Basel

Köln Assembly, 2007Tempera on Slate

50.8 x 30.5 cm

NEXT PAGERed / Blue, 2007Tempera on Dibond86.4 x 86.4 cm

Red / Gold, 2007Tempera on Dibond86.4 x 86.4 cm

WINSTON ROETH

KLAUS STAUDT

In 2004 John Carter Notes: “for Klaus Staudt especially, it was this play of light which became such an important aspect of his art. In a typical work, subtle differences of colour and tone appear on each facet of the individual units, according to the angle of the light source; or by light reflected onto those in shadow. Each individual unit receives and reflects light in a different way, according to its positioning. The appearance of these works is subject to constant change as the light alters in the course of the day. “Their essence is not one of rigid permanence but one of lasting permutation” as Gottfried Boehm has said of Klaus Staudt’s work. Instead of using clear Plexiglas glazing, Staudt has at times, used coloured Plexiglas, so that the entire relief is flooded with coloured light - another way to colour without paint. Other later works have utilised translucent Plexiglas as a means of exploring changes of focus within the relief, the units at the back dissolve into soft focus, whilst those at the front retain more of their sharpness. I think it is true to say that Klaus Staudt has continued to work within the concepts established at the “Nouvelle Tendence” time, and he has created a powerful and poetic body of work over this period, developing his interest in light and transparency. Throughout, he has held strongly to the idea of the pictorial field as a governing factor in his work, and the discipline of a square format as a parameter within which to operate. In the case of his three-dimensional work, a cubic or rectilinear space is favoured.” *

* extract from a text by John Carter published on the occassion of an exhibition at the Beardsmore Gallery in London in 2004 entitled:Klaus Staudt, Hartmut Böhm - Concrete and Constructive Art from Germany

Weiß-graue Modulation 2, 1978Cardboard and Perspex

157 x 80 x 7 cm

KLAUS STAUDT

Diagonal 1, 1967 / 73Polystyrol, Paint on Perspex

100 x 100 x 9 cm

BEAT ZODERER

Beat Zoderer predominantly uses everyday materials as a basis for his work. The artist sources his materials from general hardware stores. Rather than altering them, Zoderer makes use of these materials within what at first appears to be methodical structures based on repetition or mathematical systems. However this is a deception, as each piece allows for an arbitrary element.

During the largely spontaneous process of creating works, Beat Zoderer is guided by an attempt to create order in chaos. To facilitate this he sometimes draws on the formal language of historic works of geometric abstraction. The complexity of each piece consciously allows for imperfections and mistakes. It is this self-contradicting and ambiguous quality of the works that gives them the playfulness that probably best characterizes the artist and his work.

The work exhibited at Art Cologne is a canvas panel covered with a woven web of multi coloured Indian silk ribbons that the artist collected during his travels to the subcontinent. The work is probably one of the best examples of Zoderer’s woven pieces from the mid 90’s.

Textilbander auf Leinen, Nor.3, Indian Textile Ribbons, 1996Textile Ribbons on Canvas

190 x 180 cm