2nd EDITION I ART EMPIRE AWARD

GROUP EXHIBITION SECRETS . TINA OELKER . CLAUDIA MÄCHLER . SABINA SAKOH

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

TINA OELKER____Oelker’s paintings begin where it never ends. With “ Kallisto & Co, 25 Colours Stockholm and 12.5 Colours Florence“, Tina Oelker has returned to abstraction after 30 years. Her long-term project „1000 Hares“ attracted widespread attention from 2007 – 2014. Although the hare has been considered a symbol of freedom at least since Joseph Beuys, Oelker had to free herself from this branding. Her parallel large-format hunting pictures and portraits were overshadowed by the flood of field brown hare variations; it seemed too seductive and easy to pin Oelker down to this. However, her painting, rich in variation and versed in art history, picked up speed during this phase and produced a depth that really comes into its own in abstraction. Perseverance, courage, talent, dedication to painting itself and other disciplines of the liberal arts, such as graphics, poetry, philosophy, exhibition concept, film, performance, and interdisciplinary social evenings as constant social feedback describe Oelker’s working method in an honest and direct way. Tina Oelker stretches and breaks not only her own boundaries, but also those of the viewer. Her colour compositions are daring, challenging, yet familiar and, through their high vibration and vitality, encourage one to think beyond the dimension of time.   Jean-Luc Cujaux / Art Historian

CLAUDIA MÄCHLER____The subject of Claudia Mächler’s work is the human being in its entirety or as a portrait. Her paintings are questioning classical notions of idealised beauty. 

In each of her paintings, one intensely senses her enthusiasm for constantly changing creative processes that underlie each work. In her art, Claudia Mächler consistently seeks to combine different states of painting. She explores the most diverse strategies, from delicate patterning to gestural brushstrokes. In choosing her motifs, she often draws on people she is close to. She captures moments and interprets them in a way that allows the viewer to share in their emotions. They are close-ups of a feeling. Mächler traces breaks, which then come together to form new associations, from abstraction to figuration. As she progresses, naturalistic elements serve as anchors of authenticity. 

These breaks do not coincide by chance: Claudia Mächler is concerned with creating a harmonious connection of states. Her atmospheric portraits capture the essence of the individual. 

SABINA SAKOH____Sakoh studied at the art academy in Munich under Hans Baschang. She is one of the most important figurative artists of her generation (Tim Eitel, Neo Rauch, Matthias Weischer and many more) and her works are represented internationally in numerous exhibitions, project spaces, biennials and art collections. She became known beyond the art scene when the German Foreign Minister at the time, Guido Westerwelle, had her painting “February” hung up in his office at the Foreign Office. She lives and works in Munich and Berlin.

In her figurative, neo-sublime works, Sabina Sakoh metaphorically processes the virulent energies of awakening and upheaval. Humanistic and liberal-democratic values ​​and their current questioning in view of the threats e.g. from climate change, technical disruption and nuclear war are the basis of her paintings and their protagonists. Whereas earlier paintings focused on the collective cultural and political manifestation of societies (in Europe), in her new series of works titled “Levitation” she concentrates on the psychology of the individual. Diffuse colourful-abstract surroundings in airbrush technique break through the seemingly old-master painting technique. More and more often she abandons anatomical form and color in favor of free distortion, whereby the inner structures of the individual protagonists* emerge all the more, following the concept of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. In the series of images, the different facets of the psyche of  all the individuals together form a collective psyche that functions as a mirror of our society today. For Sabina Sakoh, floating, levitation, as a metaphor for lightness, freedom and the pure embryonic original state of life, is at the same time a resonance space for the youthful elixir of life and fearlessness. All directions for revolutionary changes are open here with the possibility of using them disruptively (to disrupt, replace, destroy). How will it turn out?

About US

VIRTUAL . VISIONARY . VARIED

Our mission is characterized by visionarity, diversity, artistic freedom and, of cause, our passion for the arts.

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