The Hidden Side

West Berlin Gallery is proud to present the artworks of graphic designer, illustrator and fine artist Sebastien Feraut a.k.a Niark1 in „The Hidden Side“ – an exhibition dedicated to the collection of his most recent paintings and originals. One of the first artists to be exhibited at the gallery in a group show back in 2009, Niark1 returns, this time with the whole space to himself, and in his highly saturated graphic style, reveals the deeper emotions of the inner, sometimes tortured, soul.

With a multitude of inspirations, ranging from all kinds of music to create, to 80s horror films, David Lynch, Hayao Miyazaki animations, Francis Bacon, Basquiat, Constructivism, Cubism, graffiti and street art, subcultures, the list is endless, Niark1’s work reflects the pop surrealism of the Low Brow Movement.  Like the roots of a tree on speed his paintings crawl and sprawl, filling up the whole canvas with the vivid creations of his imagination. Not even the tiniest spot of white remains, instead the flat surfaces he works on become transformed into intricately detailed bodies of voluminous geometric shapes, which seem to live and breathe, inhabited by the creatures of his mind. Although at first glance seeming naive and infantile, due to the cartoon like nature of the characters and the happy colours that fill the background, the works are far from innocent. In this densely saturated environment, slightly reminiscent of the tormented self-portraits of the surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, dark tales of the inner psyche unfold. Browns or blacks almost always dominate the scene. For Niark1, the creatures which he creates are not at all aliens, but in fact personifications of that which is closest to us – our inner selves and workings of the mind, the madness that is in us, that we hide.
Working primarily in acrylics, Niark1’s application of paint and the method he uses to define his surfaces is also unique.  The process is never clean-cut. Similar to collage, the artist likes to work with layering, cutting and pasting bits of found newspaper to his surfaces, which usually consist of paper, old magazines, little wood boards or vinyl discs and then piling them with layers of paint to give them their desired depth. The result is a work so full of information that you can just keep on looking and never get bored. Just when you think you saw it all, in a hidden corner, you notice something new.  Their infinite nature hypnotises as there is always space for discoveries.
The exhibition will display a total of about 40 paintings on paper, canvas and other various mixed media.

From 20:30 onwards, Souls United presents Piper & Marias
FreeSpaceJazzTranceElektroClashDanceFloor Concert

Beyond good & evil

However, you decided to enter the New year, full of resolutions, with a healthier eating plan, a bigger conscience or simply hangover, you will be happy to know that West Berlin Gallery re-opens with a bang. The first group show of the year presents an array of talent ranging from local living legends, to nomads and respected international artists. If you’re not a loyal member of the space already, this is a good chance to meet and greet the favorite figures in the contemporary street scene, with plenty for your deprived eyes to feast on after the holiday art drought, as well as be the first to witness the new and very welcome expansion of the space.

Remember Linda’s Ex, the guy who pretty much covered the whole of Friedrichshain with pleas for his one true love to return. Well, even though that romance was never quite fulfilled (what is wrong with Linda you might wonder, can a girl ask for anything more romantic?) Roland Brückner, the once tortured soul behind these visual confessions of the heart has now bloomed into a fully fledged local hero, recognized for his emotional approach and painfully detailed sense of line. In pencil, on seven raw bricks from his parents house, from the exact spot where Linda used to lean on at Christmas, he picks up the theme of unrequited love from a more grown up perspective.

Fellow local street poet Alias, who, following a very successful solo-show at the gallery last year comes back with his latest work which includes two new stencils as well as other mix media mischief, combining metal and wood.

Berlin-based activist Mein Lieber Prost is responsible for such socially beneficial services as improving advertising signs, making fun of tourists and reminding the generally stressed-out public to laugh and smile with the happy „Prostie“ faces he generously distributes all over town. For this show, he presents unique framed pieces, combining his studio skills in mixed media together with cleverly simple characters to create amusing social commentaries in his contagiously witty way.

Although not biologically German, Sp38, is pretty much local by now, considering the wealth of goodness he’s plastered the town with since he’s been prisoner here since 1995. We are particularly grateful for his rabbits and the provocative use of text which he’s been educating us with.

Another master of the written word is Giacomo Spazio, a newcomer to the gallery but definitely no novice in the scene, a multi-tasking godfather more like. With his own gallery space in his native Milan, Spazio’s curriculum vitae also includes theory and music production, as well as punk rock records. In his artistic work on show, he uses text in rather controversial ways presented on mix media canvases.

☮ , Love & everything else will follow… are not the right words to describe the work of DTG / Mongomania, an open collective, based all over the world. Founded in 2001 on a little planet in the Mongonese galaxy they came to earth to digitize the offline analog world, with a healthy archive of a decade of exhibitions and on going projects. DTG could be short for  “different things grow”, “digitize those grapefruits”, “don’t talk global”, “do the ghettowahnsinn” or “da true girls”. The latest DTG edition will show a selection of the “YO I GOT A PROJECT” photo series, new and exclusive works shown for the first time, featuring simple slogans on different surfaces just waiting to be interpreted. It will also contain original artwork, a limited edition poster, a sticker series as well as a little photobook.

Last but not least is Alexander Clouchard Barbone, the streetest of them all, quite frankly because the nomadic way of life sans roof has been his preferred life-style for the last thirty years. Probably the artist with the most secluded and what to some might seem quite insane method of working, ie locking himself in for days to cut and paste, Barbone is, himself and his work so unique precisely due to his disassociation from the outside world. Usually quite weary of any kind of system, particularly gallery systems, Barbone didn’t seem to mind our walls and roof this time to house his creations, featuring comics collages. Thank god. Enjoy!

ART BRIGHT

Once again, the completely tiled 400 square meters former canteen kitchen of the Stasi Headquarters will be transformed into Art Bright, the meta art fair of the Bright Tradeshow, so to say.  At this winter edition of Bright, West Berlin Gallery will be showing a selection of unstoppable, creative street activists, who have fortunately allowed themselves to slow down long enough to show some work at the gallery.

At Bright they will exclusively be presenting their latest work. With Alias, SP38, Mymo,  Matthias Gephart, Mein Lieber Prost, Peachbeach (Lars Wunderlich, Falk Hoger, Attila Szamozi), Büro-Büro (Julian Faudt & Stefan Mückner) and Giacomo Spazio, Guillaume Trotin, curator and founder of the West Berlin Gallery, has managed to round up a colorful creative troop of local Berliners and Berlin-former-based artists. For the Artists Kitchen at Bright he is promising a mix of different styles and techniques, exhibits made from stencil art, character and graphic design, as well as illustration on material ranging from wood and canvases to paper and metal. The focus is depicting all various techniques of the urban art machine: including tags, stencil and painting. Following a successful debut at Bright in summer 2010 we’re looking forward to this winter reunion.

Together with Bright and Artig&Co we’re presenting the “Vector Lounge Bright Special” as a special highlight in the large cinema hall – a battle in which some of our graphic design artists will be competing against one another in a simultaneous illustrative contest. So on the very first day, the competing illustrators will be hearing: “on your drawing pads, ready, steady, go!” and the subsequent awarding of the winner over a few beers should be a good enough reason not to miss this creative kick-off.

(Words Nada Carls, Bright Magazine)

My Belly is Mumbling

We are proud and happy to invite you to Berlin’s most active street artist ALIAS first Solo Show in town, from November 4th to December 29th 2010.

The Berlin-based artist got first introduced to street-art at the turn of the millennium while living in Hamburg. Since 2003 he lives in Berlin and has developed a unique street-art approach, becoming an important protagonist of this vivid urban art scene. Alias has constantly improved his stencil technique over the years and has now reached technical and aesthetic maturity but always keeping a pinch of humor and grim realism in his works. Many of his posters and stickers that are produced with stencils and spray cans can be found in cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Rome, Milan and also in Bristol.

The exhibition will feature new, original and absolutely unique pieces, mixed media on wood, metal, canvas and cardboards as well as strictly limited edition stencil posters & 9 exclusive photographs from Berlin photographers Stefanie Sauer & Thomas von Wittich.

ALIAS had three solo exhibitions so far in his hometown Hamburg and in Essen ; his works were also featured in numerous group-exhibitions around the globe. Surprisingly he never had a Solo Show in Berlin yet.

” There is no better school than the street. The street is an unconventional gallery of modern art wherein one can display one’s work free of compromises ; the place where one’s own style meets, clashes with and confront the work of all the others – in a complete freedom and total diversity.

The street is a mixture of languages and a hotchpotch of voices, where the pictograms of road signs and the surreal messages written by street artists live side by side, and where the simple commercial communication runs up against the political. The street makes visible to the careful observer the underlying noise of our society, because the street generates its own methods of communication.

In the streets of any city, each message shouts to be seen, and it is in this creative chaos that the germs of street-talk are concealed; street-talk that will in all probability prompt our forthcoming lifestyle.

It is always on this multicoloured and multiethnic stage that the culture of the masses and the subcultures probe their powers of persuasion.

Wether we like it or not, it is the vast mass of people out there on the streets for whaterver reason who consciously or not will determine the success or failure of a given product, wether this be a concert, humanitarian aid, an art show or merely the opening of a new shopping mall.”

Giacomo Spazio

Now in 2D*

West Berlin Gallery proudly presents Mike Friedrich and Timrobot – NOW IN 2D* from September 30th to October 30th 2010 at the West Berlin Gallery.

The 3D trend is rising and everything is jam-packed with 3D effects, new products flood the market everyday, everything gets a 3D facelift. It’s like Botox for media. Even the art world is not safe from this trend. But do we need all this? Mike Friedrich and Timrobot – both members of The World Organisation, a Berlin based art collective- say «NO!» At least not yet.

In the West Berlin Gallery they will show a potpourri of illustrations and paintings dealing with the 3D theme in a humorous and satiric way. Watch as 2D collide when Timrobot’s cute characters enter Mike Friedrich’s underworld. Coming from a background of comics, Saturday morning cartoons and a time where 3D was more like blue and red lines than hightech effects, the artists want to set a statement and present their artworks in a maybe not so serious way – completely in 2D.

* Special 2D-glasses will be provided at the Opening at 7pm on the 30th of September. The evening will be completed by music and drinks to make it a date.

It’s a Happening Thing

West Berlin Gallery proudly presents NORBERT REISSIG’S first solo show “It’s a Happening Thing” from September 9th to September 24th 2010 at the West Berlin Gallery.

The exhibition will feature unreleased works from the past years and thematically deals with the decade of the 1960s, an epoque marked by social upheaval, misty-eyed romantic and strong contradictions. The artist visually approaches this legendary decade, aiming at interpreting it from a contemporary point of view, asking if there is any countermovement in our society today.

Reissig has developed a distinctive style implementing playful as well as formal graphic elements in his works, showing depth and reflectiveness in his subject matter. When asked how he would describe his work without using the actual term “art” he refers to it as “NonHippiePsychedelia”.

Lisa Wassmann

West Berlin Gallery proudly presents Lisa Wassmann’s first solo show in Berlin from August 5th to September 5th. The exhibition will give a first general overview of the photographer’s works carried out over the last three years.

As a photographer, Lisa Wassmann earnestly oscillates between precision relating to crafts and cool digital aesthetics, hence creating a subtle interaction motif between these two aspects. Both Berlin club culture and unbelievable landscapes are featured in a selection of her favourite shots she has chosen for the show. This selection of mostly unpublished photos, specifically represents the artist’s perspective towards her work; and questions whether showing inner feelings has got a price and discusses how to convey intimate feelings into the open. as she was preparing the exhibition, Lisa Wassmann worked on the principle of representation on several levels: the photographs alone are not at the core of the show; their limited reproducibility and framing techniques restored her digital photography prints to ‘pictures’ in the traditional meaning of term. The unique pieces are developed in such a way, acquiring a clear delimitation from the outside and bear a tense interrelation between tradition and present.

The photographs have been issued as a limited edition of three copies each.

Welcome to The PeachBeach

We would like to extend an invitation to the opening of its great summer vibe show Welcome to the Peachbeach presenting works from the Berlin-based design and Street Art collective.

Peachbeach is a fraternity composed of three reconverted bad boys who decided to settle in Berlin and enjoy its vibrancy and dazzling cosmopolitan colours. The three young artists aim at fusing their different backgrounds and creative approaches in one edgy mix of strong illustration, sensitive typography style and an ironic vision of social etiquette and games.

Peachbeach Attila Szamosi, Falk Hoger and Lars Wunderlich have, since their troubled teenage-hood, come a long way with their collective and diversified their art and activities from graffiti to design, painting, branding and even charity at the Operation Tirana in May 2010 in collaboration with Mazine. The collective strives at connecting the plurality of minds and skills, combining different synergies and outlooks to inspire every-day life.

The show’s name Welcome to the Peachbeach was inspired by Las Vegas giant neon signs from the 70s and will feature paintings on canvas, wooden panels, illustration on posters, graphics on skateboards and more: in brief, Street Art in all shapes and sizes!

Codaï Nakamura

Codai Nakamura grew up, studied and leaves in Japan.
West Berlin Gallery presents his first solo show in Europe from June 3rd to July 3rd.

Codai Nakamura’s first key inspiration comes from Taro Okamoto. The Japanese mentor, noted for his abstract and avant-garde paintings and sculpture, changed is vision for Art. Okamato’s vision being very different from the approach of the traditional Japanese Fine Art Schools. Okamato showed him that Art doesn’t necessarily needs to be beautiful in the conventional way, opening new doors to his creativity.

Nakamura’s paintings & illustration are very iconic, with central characters who represents Japanese people in their daily life. His work draws heavily from a pessimistic view of the urban experience which he describes in his work as tired characters and sad persons. Later on he was also influenced by Barry McGee and got to paint a lot of street characters.

Despite his young age, Codai has already had numerous shows in galleries in Japan such as galerie 6C or the Sunsui Museum. He uses pens and oil acryl and favors aqueous inks. West Berlin Gallery will present a collection of his latest works, exhibited for the very first time in Europe. During the vernissage on Thursday June 3rd he will do live paintings for the pleasure on the audience.

The Opening Ceremony will be held on Thursday the 3rd of June at 19:00 in West Berlin Gallery, Brunnenstr. 56 Berlin. The evening will be completed with a live painting session by the artist, music by Massimiliano Pagliara (Balihu Rushhour/Robert Jonhson) and nice drinks to make it a date!