ELEMENTARY

In her drawings and prints on large-format sheets of paper, Daniela Baumann creates elementary pictorial worlds with natural structures that unfold in the field of tension between figuration and abstraction. For her ink and charcoal drawings, some of which are monumental, she uses found wood, which she chars herself and processes into charcoal. Her multi-layered linoleum prints, which oscillate between massive compression of form and fragile dissolution of form, are organic and expressive at the same time. Natural materials such as wood, leaves or botanical sketches serve as inspiration for the transfer to the printing plate. Baumann usually presents her seemingly archaic works as free-hanging, expansive installations, giving the expressive pictorial creations a sculptural character. The drawings and prints tell of originality and transformation, energy and movement between surface, line and space, and also contain moments of destruction and growth, strength and fragility. The artist lives and works in Cologne.
I-Shu Chen shows in his series “Fake Landscape” minimalist drawings and paintings on paper, which have their origins in the marking of cities, landscapes and gardens on historical Chinese maps. Linear structures and diverse color nuances on differently designed backgrounds create spaces that are as strictly constructive as they are open in terms of design. The contrast between clear geometric order and free dynamic expression characterizes the equally powerful and sensitive visual language. Numerous layering and overpainting of colors, lines and surfaces characterize the complex pictorial events. The works seem to oscillate between reality and illusion, the natural and the artificial. Using charcoal,
pastels, acrylic paints and collaged adhesive strips, Chen creates abstract reinterpretations of Far Eastern pictorial traditions and conceptual cultural spaces, opening up a dialog between past and present in contemporary drawing and painting. Originally from Taiwan, the artist lives and works in Düsseldorf.