Luise Unger: UNRUHE
Galerie Karsten Greve AG St. Moritz
Monday - Saturday 10 am – 1 pm / 2 pm – 6.30 pm
Opening on Saturday July 22 from 5 to 7 pm.
In the presence of the artist.
Galerie Karsten Greve is pleased to present the new solo exhibition UNRUHE by German artist Luise Unger. With a total of 20 works, the exhibition combines mostly recent sculptures and works on paper with individual works from the past twenty years.
Luise Unger (*1956, Bad Saulgau) immerses herself in a creative process during the creation of her sculptures, which produces both architectural and anthropomorphic forms, as well as intangible silhouettes that resemble an illusion of gray shadows. Whether floating and gently rotating in space or resting on a pedestal, the semi-transparent sculptures invite the viewer to explore their hollow but not empty interior. From thin, yet robust and ultimately hard stainless steel wire, voluminous, delicate, yet complex structures emerge, which are characterized by a fragile softness. Several layers crocheted from metallic wire mark the transition from the inside to the outside.
This gives the abstract bodies the impression of being covered by a protective skin that contains further forms. The handmade fabric is seamlessly rounded on the outside, while its permeability reveals the interior spaces. But what one sees and discovers continues to remain surface - the invisible becomes apparent, what is grasped illusory. In this way Luise Unger plays with the transitions between different states and interweaves seemingly weightless forms. The layers lie on top of each other like nets, remaining permeable to light, air, and the viewer's gaze, which detects condensed and translucent areas like X-rays. But the inner most place is usually a hollow space, an enclosed void, an inconceivable center surrounded by membranes.
Luise Ungers' works on paper form an independent complex of works. These also challenge the eye, sometimes with curvaceous, sometimes with linear structures. Different textures play a role where, for example, dense graphite traces take on a reflective, immaterial appearance or cut-out areas open up additional levels. The reciprocal relationship to the sculptures becomes clear when the wire meshes transfer their shadow play onto the wall like three-dimensional, floating drawings.
UNRUHE
An idea of unity, or the longing for it, is the impetus for my work. A vague idea, a mood is the starting point for a work. It develops slowly and goes its own way until the soul image matches the outer appearance. It is an interaction from the inside to the outside. Experiences are brought into vibration in order to approach the unknown. Density and emptiness, near and far, flowing transitions, growing and passing, continuous and discontinuous. Space and time disappear. Permeability of borders. The world and me. What comes out of me with the news from the world to crochet a structure. Restlessness in the soul and in the cells, storage place of primeval knowledge. Connection between cell movement and society. Transformative change. Forms dissolve and form anew
Luise Unger was born in 1956 in Bad Saulgau, Swabia, and studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1981 to 1989. Her works are regularly exhibited in galleries and museums; among others, the artist participated in the annual presentation Große Kunstausstellung NRW at the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf from 1999 to 2004. Luise Unger lives and works today in Cologne.
