 Liebigs Laboratorium Oder Meine Fünf Lieblingskünstler (Liebig's Laboratory or My Five Favorite Artists), 2007 Oil on canvas, 210 x 300 cm Christoph Ruckhäberle Falsche Figuration Galleri Nicolai Wallner is happy to present our third solo exhibition with German artist Christoph Ruckhäberle (born 1972). Ruckhäberle's work represents a compositional jigsaw puzzle, each element an individually delineated shape filling a gap in the whole: L-shaped knees disjointedly connected to trapeze skirts, and tubular arms and legs unite square bodies - the individual elements locked together without a sense of grounded order. A rhythmic pattern of triangles between the juxtaposed limbs gives form and movement to the figures. This space in-between sums up a classic painterly paradox, how solid mass is only made possible by absence. To the question of what the exhibition is about, the title of the exhibition "Falsche Figuration" gives some if not all of the clues. Ruckhäberle leads us down a road full of strange turns and blind alleys. The men and women of the paintings appear both fully formed and strangely flat. Embedded in the surface the figures are simultaneously pushed towards the viewer, a feature accentuated by backgrounds that are either of a solid colour or a mesmerizing array of patterns. A series of masks fill up this double position particularly well. Rather than giving away the faces behind, the eyes and mouths wide-open become part of the winding symmetric design of masks themselves. It is fake figuration not only in the sense that the artist creates impossible constellations but also questions a world teetering between pattern and reality. With "Falsche Figuration" Ruckhäberle crosses a boundary from the narrative towards the pure iconic image. Brash, vivid colours replace earthly tones of before and cramped interiors give way to the open. Figures seem to have broken loose of their former bonds and now exist freely in ambigious space. The works for the exhibition "Falsche Figuration" have been created in Copenhagen this summer in connection with an artist residence at Statens Værksteder, Gl. Dok. Exhibition: 23 November 2007 - 12 January 2008 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 12am - 5pm, Sat 12am - 3pm Galleri Nicolai Wallner Njalsgade 21 (Building 15) DK-2300 Copenhagen Telephone +45 325 709 70 Fax +45 325 709 71 Email nw@nicolaiwallner.com www.nicolaiwallner.com |
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