Peter Roehr
Field Pulsations
Opening – 7 SEP, 11 am – 8 pm
Mehdi Chouakri Wilhelm Hallen
No extended opening hours for Gallery Night
FOTO SESSION
ZEHN SCHWARZE TAFELN, 1967 (SAMMLUNG STÄDEL MUSEUM, FRANKFURT/MAIN)
FOTO-MONTAGE (FO-34), 1965 (HILTI ART FOUNDATION VADUZ, LIECHTENSTEIN)
Peter Roehr, who died tragically young in 1968 at the age of 24, left behind an astonishingly lively oeuvre.
For decades, Peter Roehr’s art has constantly updated itself in line with the latest artistic developments. From theperspective of the Sixties, it appeared to be a German variant of Pop Art, whereas the Seventies saw Roehr’s structural aesthetic primarily in terms of its minimalistconceptual aspect. The consumeroriented Eighties in turn discovered in Roehr’s commodity aesthetics the current appropriation effect, which celebrated international success under the name Appropriation Art, while the Nineties finally recognised the Frankfurt artist’s concept of art extended into social areas. The fact that Roehr emphasises not least the contextuality of all art is another central theme of the following generation of artists.
By rejecting every romantic expectation of art, Peter Roehr, as a loner, developed the prerequisite for an art that no longer represents or interprets, but rather factually names its object. By 1963, he had already arrived at his fundamental principle of the serial, unvaried arrangement of industrially produced, identical materials and investigates their aesthetic qualities and their visualisation. In doing so, Roehr turned away from any reference outside the work and at a very early stage adopted a position comparable to those American artists who would later be summarised under the term Minimal and Conceptual Art.
At the same time, Roehr also applied his montage technique to typographic elements such as found numbers, words and texts and, as a forerunner of multimedia art, also experimented with photo, film and sound sequences. His photo montages in particular reflect advertising as a modern environmental aesthetic. It is no longer the iconographic or functional meaning of the individual element that is important, but the specific characteristics and how they are revealed in the repetition: The sequencing enables a new, surprising view of the supposedly familiar elements used in the construction of a structure that is alien to reality.
— Gerda Wendermann
Charlotte Posenenske
Monotonie ist schön
Opening – 7 SEP, 11 am – 8 pm
Mehdi Chouakri Wilhelm Hallen / Archiv Charlotte Posenenske
No extended opening hours for Gallery Night
Charlotte Posenenske, Monotonie ist schön
Charlotte Posenenske was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1930 and died 1985 in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. She is considered as one of the most important representatives of minimalism. Posenenske’s artistic development departed from painting, evolved into plastische Bilder, plastic images that progressively reached out into space, and culminated in sculptures that constitute her major work in the 1960s: Serially produced objects and sculptures made out of sheet steel which can be freely combined. These works suspend the subjectivity of the artist and replace the traditional, autonomous artwork with industrial artifacts. By detaching the latter from their everyday functions they become apparent as aesthetic objects and simultaneously undermine art’s commodity form. Posenenskes work explicitly purses a democratic ambition through low production costs and by creating possibilities for participation.
Her works have been shown in solo exhibitions at Fondazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bolzano (2021), MUDAM Luxemburg (2020), Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf (2020), DIA Foundation, Beacon (2019), MACBA, Barcelona (2019), MUHKA, Antwerpen (2015), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2010), MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main (1990) and many others.
Furthermore, the artist has taken part in numerous group shows, including exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Basel (2021), Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2020), Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2019), 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2019), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2018), MAAT Museu Arte Arquitetura Tecnologia, Lisboa (2017), Tate Modern, London (2016), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2016), Museum für Moderne Kunst,Vienna (2012), Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2011) and at documenta 12, Kassel (2007).
Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg
A Room Of My Own
14 SEP until 26 OCT 2024
Openinig – 13 SEP, 6-10pm
Fasanenplatz
Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg, 2024, courtesy of the artist and Mehdi Chouakri Berlin
Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg, 2024, courtesy of the artist and Mehdi Chouakri Berlin
Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg, 2024, courtesy of the artist and Mehdi Chouakri Berlin
For her first solo exhibition at Mehdi Chouakri Berlin, set to take place during Berlin Art Week 2024 (September 11 – 15), German sculptor Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg will showcase a new body of work. The exhibition will feature three sculptures composed of mouth blown glass spheres and aluminium cast objects as well as a series of wall reliefs made from PVC and spray paint. These pieces, both “cute” and “cruel”, offer a reflection on our imagination. By engaging with the concept of the “cute,” Dunkelberg invites viewers to explore the world of man-made constructs and the one of Childhood.
Born in 1987 in Bonn, Germany, Dunkelberg studied at the HfBK, Hamburg University of Fine Arts, and completed her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, UDK, under the guidance of Manfred Pernice. Now based in Berlin, she creates sculptures that explore the balance between the real and the abstract, using familiar domestic objects as a starting point. Her practice questions modernity by blending industrial processes with regional craftsmanship, with Dunkelberg welding, forging, and lacquering her works herself. The playfulness of shapes and colours contrasts with the heavy, cold materials she uses, such as steel, aluminum, and plastic. Influenced by pop culture, the artist uses symbols of femininity to challenge social norms not without humour.
Dunkelberg’s artistic journey began with painting, where she quickly became aware of the delicacy of canvas, which vibrates with even the slightest force. This led her to explore the resistance offered by harder surfaces, a quality that immediately appealed to her. To experiment further, she began to create molds out of plastic using a vacuum forming machine, a process that introduces an element of surprise similar to printmaking. Unlike the precision of painting, this method allows for a degree of distance, which Dunkelberg values. She deliberately avoids flawless surfaces, embracing the
imperfections—such as imprints of small holes or screws—that reveal traces of the work’s production process.
“I’ve always drawn or tinkered, taken things apart and put them back together again. Everyone has a need to express themselves and I think art is one of the most natural ways to do that.”
“I like the idea that the techniques I use have the potential to demystify or destabilise historical narratives.”
– Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg, interview with art critic Chloe Stead for THE COLLECTIVE Magazine, September 2024
Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg is a sculptor, born in 1987 in Bonn, Germany. She studied at the HfBK, Hamburg University of Fine Arts and completed her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, UDK, where she studied with Manfred Pernice. Welding, forging, and lacquering the works herself, her labor-intensive practice involves industrial tools and production techniques. The playfulness of shapes and colors in addition to the influence of pop culture contradict the often heavy, cold materials (steel, aluminum, plastic). Interested in the push and pull relationship between the real and the abstract, furniture and other domestic objects and materials serve as an anchor upon which she can experiment. She lives and works in Berlin.
Her works have been shown in solo exhibitions at the Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam (2021). Furthermore, the artist has taken part in numerous group shows, including exhibitions at Institution Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisbon (2023), Modem, Museum for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen (2022), Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2020), MdBK Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig (2019), Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2018), Museum of Photography Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin (2017), HfBK Hugs x KHM Cologne, Hamburg (2016).