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Frank Nitsche "I AM SINGLE"
Nanzuka Underground
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Artists
Frank Nitsche
This is German artist Frank Nitsche's first solo exhibition in Japan. Nitsche was born in Görlitz on the outskirts of Dresden in the former East Germany. He attended the Dresden Art Academy, the same school from which Gerhard Richter graduated. Along with his peers at the Academy, including Thomas Scheibitz and Eberhard Havekost, Nitsche has been dubbed part of the Dresden school generation and has received international acclaim as one of the leading artists of contemporary German abstract painting.
Nitsche has said that he himself is unable to project when or how each of his works will reach completion. In some cases, Nitsche spends years adding layer upon layer of oil paint searching for the perfect composition that possesses both subtlety and strength, and colors that strike a beautiful harmony. Although the process is fluid and incidental, the artist's firm quality control guides the piece as it flows toward its point of destination, a sublime place that, like the world of natural sciences, maintains a miraculous balance as intellect and emotion collide. The hidden layers beneath the accumulated applications of paint evoke historical truths that remain unrecognized by mankind. Or perhaps they represent the veil of contemporary progression, masking those truths.
Nitsche's paintings are like a mirror reflecting simultaneously the past, present and future. They are reminiscent of graffiti scrawled across the Berlin Wall that once tore apart East and West Germany, full of raw anger and despair. At another glance, they seem to imagine some yet undiscovered microbe, or perhaps the symbols and charts used in molecular, quantum and other cutting edge sciences. Then again, perhaps they are the traces left behind by extraterrestrial intelligent life forms.
Nitsche has titled this exhibit of new works "I AM SINGLE", yet as has been the case with his past exhibitions, the interpretation of the title is left open to the viewer. It seems almost as if the title is a decoy, to distract from the real context hidden within the works. Meanwhile, Nitsche has publicly revealed within his portfolio the sources of his morphological images in the form of a massive, thoroughly archived collection of photographs. There is a journalistic nature to the collection, revealing finally that the artist is in fact attempting to look beneath the surface of this world.
Nitsche has said that he himself is unable to project when or how each of his works will reach completion. In some cases, Nitsche spends years adding layer upon layer of oil paint searching for the perfect composition that possesses both subtlety and strength, and colors that strike a beautiful harmony. Although the process is fluid and incidental, the artist's firm quality control guides the piece as it flows toward its point of destination, a sublime place that, like the world of natural sciences, maintains a miraculous balance as intellect and emotion collide. The hidden layers beneath the accumulated applications of paint evoke historical truths that remain unrecognized by mankind. Or perhaps they represent the veil of contemporary progression, masking those truths.
Nitsche's paintings are like a mirror reflecting simultaneously the past, present and future. They are reminiscent of graffiti scrawled across the Berlin Wall that once tore apart East and West Germany, full of raw anger and despair. At another glance, they seem to imagine some yet undiscovered microbe, or perhaps the symbols and charts used in molecular, quantum and other cutting edge sciences. Then again, perhaps they are the traces left behind by extraterrestrial intelligent life forms.
Nitsche has titled this exhibit of new works "I AM SINGLE", yet as has been the case with his past exhibitions, the interpretation of the title is left open to the viewer. It seems almost as if the title is a decoy, to distract from the real context hidden within the works. Meanwhile, Nitsche has publicly revealed within his portfolio the sources of his morphological images in the form of a massive, thoroughly archived collection of photographs. There is a journalistic nature to the collection, revealing finally that the artist is in fact attempting to look beneath the surface of this world.
Schedule | Feb 19 (Sat) 2011-Mar 19 (Sat) 2011 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Feb 19 (Sat) 2011 18:00 - 20:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | http://nug.jp/exhi/2011/02/frank_nitsche_i_am_single.html | ||||
| Venue | Nanzuka Underground http://www.nug.jp | ||||
| Location | 3-30-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from exit 5 at Meiji-jingumae Station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines, 10 minute walk from the Takeshita exit of Harajuku Station on the JR Yamanote line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-5422-3877 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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