Simone Lanzenstiel
Diffuse Ereignisse
May 5 - June 29, 2017
Opening
May 4, 2017, 7–9 pm
In her new exhibition at the Barbara Gross Galerie, Simone Lanzenstiel expands the range of her paintings which already have a strong sense of space, adding complexities that unfold into the third dimension. In the gallery a multilayered visual weave opens up into an airy, colorful landscape: in front of a mural on the wall is a loosely fixed, spray-painted or painted plastic sheet that seems almost casually interwoven with a small painting on wood. Correspondingly, Lanzenstiel presents her latest tableaux on walls partially painted gray. Works on canvas or MDF board are joined with versions of a three-dimensional painting style to form a panoramic installation embedded in the space. In continual oscillations, Lanzenstiel takes the painting from foreground to background, from limitation to liberation, and finally back to its origins on the wall.
Colorist sensations appear in the mostly white space of Simone Lanzenstiel’s paintings: pink puddles, black rivulets, the fog of spray paint, gestural scratches, empty spaces like burn holes, random blots, what look like arrows of color speeding by, accumulations of turquoise, and blue smears. Her seemingly ephemeral paintings continually remind one of the processes of creation. Lanzenstiel uses numerous techniques on various grounds: she shakes, sprays, brushes, scribbles, scrapes, and wipes her paints. Random and calculated effects float in a balance. She also incorporates painting utensils, such as paper stencils and masking tape, into the partially relief-like structure of the paintings. Delicately iridescent hues against a white background produce an atmospheric effect.
In his time Leonardo da Vinci observed drawings in sand, cloud formations, and scratches on walls in order to translate these structures to his pictures. Now, Simone Lanzenstiel transfers the succinct phenomena of today’s urban spaces into painting. What is supposedly abstract in her work is based on the traces of minimal, real given circumstances in urban outdoor space, with its weathered walls, graffiti, and manifestations of decay. Not by chance does she employ used or found materials, such as transparent plastic sheeting. Even her white is “marked” by the stains and signs of everyday wear and tear. One can regard Simone Lanzenstiel’s subjective appropriation of the medium as her own independent way of continuing with Cy Twombly’s sensitive style, as well as Blinky Palermo’s format- and genre-crossing paintings. - Birgit Sonna
SIMONE LANZENSTIEL (* 1970 in Ulm; lives in Berlin). 1993-2001 studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich; 2003 DAAD grant; 2007 1st prize, Kunst am Bau, Biozentrum Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich.
Solo shows (selected): ghosts don't exist, Galerie Vincenz Sala, Berlin, 2016; Nirgendwo hier, Galerie Axel Obiger, Berlin, 2016; On the far side, Berlin-Weekly, Berlin 2015; vorübergehend dorthin, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, 2014; New Positions, Art Cologne, 2011; ungefähr hier - etwa so nah, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, 2010; Abriss, Müllerstrasse 22, Munich, 2007. Group shows (selected): Paint on! Dimensionen des Malerischen, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2017; rupture and flow, Oberwelt, Stuttgart, 2017; You knee them in the chin, Spor Klübü, Berlin, 2015; parsenopolis, Kunstverein Pfaffenhofen, 2014; Farbe Raum Farbe, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin 2013; Die Suche nach der Sicht ergänzt den Blick, Artothek, Munich, 2013; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2012; Malerei ist immer abstrakt, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2010; The Product of Exchange, Texas Firehouse, New York, 2010.
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