FIVE FRIENDS IN ZURICH

Among the artists invited by Walter Dahn for this group exhibition are two students of his master class at the Kunstakademie Braunschweig HBK: Christof John and Ulrich Pester, both showing a selection of recent paintings. Katja Heddinga and Alfred Jansen, two free-lance photographers, are Cologne-based colleagues and good friends of Walter Dahn and have also been asked to join the show. Dahn, who used to work with Elisabeth Kaufmann, will present his own works for the third time in this gallery space. We look forward to seeing his new paintings, drawings, and objects.

Walter Dahn Waler Dahn was born 1954 in St.Tönis/Krefeld, Germany. From 1971 to 1979 he studied at the Art Academy Düsseldorf, being the last master pupil of Joseph Beuys.

During the 80’s, Dahn gained an international reputation as one of the leading painters of the artist group Mülheimer Freiheit, working in the style of the Junge Wilde or Neue Wilde (German for "wild youth" or "new wild ones").The Junge Wilde painted their expressive paintings in bright, intense colors and with quick, broad brushstrokes. In 2003/2004 his works were shown at the exhibition ”Obsessive Malerei – Ein Rückblick auf die Neuen Wilden” in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1995, Walter Dahn was nominated professor of fine arts at the University of Art in Braunschweig, Germany. He lives and works in Cologne.

After working in all medias such as painting, photography, objects, installations and unique silk screens on glass or fabric, Dahn's work is today essentially based on the medium of painting. As inspirational references he uses song texts, found footage images, photographs and poetry.

Katja Heddinga “Writing is the opposite of telling stories… It is: telling a story as well as the absence of a story. It is: a story that comes into being through the absence of a story.” (M.Duras) “…the one who rediscovers the hidden relations of things and their scattered similarities” (Foucault)

In some works, Heddinga has joined several photographs into one work. The artist does not strive to puzzle the viewer with these work combinations or make a possible interpretation more complex. She does not want to add something to one photograph or make more out of it. It is the opposite of adding something; it is the attempt to open up a picture that is otherwise closed in on itself.

Katja Heddinga works as a free-lance photographer and lives in Cologne.

Alfred Jansen “This series of photographs was shot on July 7th in Los Angeles, during the funeral service for Michael Jackson in front of the Staples Center. That is the place where, some weeks before, Jackson was rehearsing his comeback-tour. Incidentally, I was in town. Of course I took the opportunity to see what it all looked like. The media, fans, and people wanting to make some quick cash with hastily manufactured devotional objects. Apart from those, astonishingly few people. “

This new series by Jansen will be presented for the first time at Schau Ort. Alfred Jansen lives in Cologne and works as a photographer for several national and international magazines and advertising clients.

Christoph John In his paintings, Christof John scouts out the aspects of non-verbal thoughts and emotional spaces between the boundaries of loose and geometric abstraction.

A contemplative concentration is caused by an opaque to slight coating of color.

Christof John is a student of Walter Dahn’s master class of painting at Kunstakademie Braunschweig HBK.

Ulrich Pester Starting point of Ulrich Pester’s constructed worlds of imagery are at first natural objets trouvés, which the artist describes as “forms, known things, light and shadow, wind, openings and forces; as nature”. Despite the natural origin of his sujets, Pester is not a naturalist in the sense of a classic Naturalism. The first idea of a motive is alienated during the process of bringing it onto the canvas. It develops its own dynamics and autonomy. Pester is interested in the potential changes of what he saw; how it is first deconstructed and then finds new form in his paintings, withstanding any laws of physicality or logic.

Ulrich Pester is a student of Walter Dahn’s master class of painting at Kunstakademie Braunschweig HBK.

Five Friends In Zurich
a proposal by Walter Dahn
Together with: Katja Heddinga, Alfred Jansen, Christof John, Ulrich Pester