Pen in Space

PEN IN SPACE

Opening: 05/12/2016, 18:00
Exhibition: 05/12 – 05/31/2016
Address: WHITECONCEPTS | August­straße 35 | 10119 Berlin | www.whiteconcepts.de
Opening hours: Mon – Fri 11 – 17 Uhr and by appointment

The gallery WHITECONCEPTS Berlin presents a fine selection of recent drawings by German artist Michael Stalherm. The exhibition PEN IN SPACE consists of more than 30 works on paper and gives an insight into the versatility of Stalherm’s pencil techniques and his surreal imagination over the last six years.

Regarding his pencil techniques the artists describes: „In my childhood I sew doll clothes, at first by hand. Later in the tailor studio where my mother worked and ran a fashion business – I learned how to use a sewing machine. I especially was fascinated by the technique of stitching watching thread to thread at a high speed. Some drawing processes are alike, especially hatching. A carefully pointed long pencil lead makes me remember a needle. Through the process of drawing, the fictional thread becomes gradually reeled off. It first becomes a stroke, after that a line. Drawings can be seen as stitched thoughts and quilted intuitions from an intermediate world.”

After his studies of art, design and art history at the University of Basel. In 1971 he received a scholarship from the City of Basel, and an additional grant for the Cité Internationale des Artes in Paris in 1978 and 1980, supported by the Ministry of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 1989 he has been living and working in Berlin.
Michael Stalherm’s works were shown in numerous international exhibitions in Switzerland, America, Germany, Italy, France and Monaco. His works are included in private collections worldwide.

Artist information and available works

MONSTRODAMUS

MONSTRODAMUS

Opening: 05/04/2016, 17:00
Exhibition: 05/04 – 05/08/2016
We Dance Like Monsters (WDLM) – An international collective of 27 artists
In collaboration with Pictoplasma Festival
Address: WHITECONCEPTS | August­straße 35 | 10119 Berlin | www.whiteconcepts.de
Opening hours: Wed – Sun 11:00 – 20:00 and by appointment

We Dance Like Monsters (WDLM) present Monstrodamus – an international group exhibition exploring the relationship between monsters and humans at the WHITECONCEPTS Gallery, Berlin.
Monsters exist all over the world, woven into the fabric of our global culture. They inhabit the universe and the far reaches of the human imagination in a multitude of forms. The WDLM collective draws together documentation from its creative members to give an international perspective on monsters – both fun and fearsome.
For the WDLM artists, ‘monster’ is a mechanism to reveal a mix of contemporary issues and dilemmas combined with character design which is at the core of their practice. The artists play with the idea that while some monsters are inherently evil, others are indicators of an imbalance within the natural order of our environment, or signal discord within our social and cultural beliefs. From New Zealand comes an avatar for the human intervention in nature, and monsters by artists in Thailand and Australia challenge both identity and femininity. WDLM artists also communicate the idea of monsters appearing in our social and cultural conscience as guides for social attitudes and behaviour, such as the monsters of prejudice and fear revealed in comics and storytelling from Finland.
A multifarious selection of traditional and modern monster associations are integrated in the form of portraits, stories, battles, worlds and even monster news. Mythological and metaphorical monsters manifest within insignia and motifs; amulets from Bolivia have been crafted to ward off evil and to bring good, while bold Peruvian masks bear monstrous faces. From angels who connect humanity to the mythical underworld to fortunetellers predicting the future, this exhibition is a diverse and vibrant monster mix, including sculpture, automata, illustration, painting, print and fashion.
WDLM – is a global group of 27 talented character obsessed illustrators, graphic designers, sculptors and provocateurs from more than 20 countries spanning from South America to New Zealand, through Far East Asia, Finland and the Russian Federation. Thrown together for the 2014 Pictoplasma Academy, from a chaos of creation, they are continuing their impact on the world as an international collective.

Participating artists:
Baillairgé (Canada)
Luis Benzaquen AKA Guizo (Peru)
Garry Buckley (New Zealand)
Irene Feleo (Australia)
Thea Harksen (Germany)
Sernur Isik (Turkey)
Yasmin May Jaafar (Finland)
Gerome Jean (Belgium)
Adisak Jirasakkasem (Thailand)
Kukka Kiuru (Finland)
Conall Leite (Ireland)
Tanya Marriott (New Zealand)
Alvaro Martinez (Bolivia)
Michel Martins (Netherlands)
Christian Michel (Mexico)
Ikumi Nakaya (Japan)
Yumi Oh (South Korea)
Jasmine Parker (UK)
Adolf Rodriguez (Spain)
Karen Anna Solberg Sandholm AKA Angry Duck (Norway)
T-Wei (New Zealand)