The exhibition “AQUA” at the Galerie Isabelle Lesmeister shows paintings by Birgit Nadrau, Jungmin Park and Lars Reiffers in July of 2014. The topic is water.
Birgit Nadrau is showing impressive canvases, that she transforms into water surfaces through the use of silver leaf and aluminum leaf. In this silver colored, impenetrable consistency and shape she’s creating the illusion, as if the viewer is looking from the shore at the sea, in an extraordinary abider of the moment. The painterly medium that she is using in the process are both unorthodox, as well as perfectly chosen at the same time: every one of the “Water”-images is capturing the viewers imagination with their own, shining but at the same time somber grisaille optics and brings out a melancholic vibe.
The artist was a master student in Nuremberg and also in Krakau and graduated five years ago and has since won a variety of different prizes and scholarships both in the cities she studied in and others.
Nadrau is painting the surfaces of water. In Jungmin Park’s paintings, water is omnipresent. Sometimes it transforms the sight into a rainy, distorted version auf one’s view through the wind shield, other times he’s using the same topic for his images as Birgit Nadrau and shows a view looking out over the water. This concept of looking out at something is presented through completely different premises. The artist, who was born in South Korea, is not only paying attention to every wave, every movement and every reflection of light when he’s displaying the surface of the water, but also the hidden underground of it. Bright rocks and deep-green seaweed are becoming visibly amorphous through the shining reflections of the water, until one can again notice the highly fascinating unknown in the depth of the back.
Park is penetrating the surface of the water. The oil paintings, who are very intent in detail, by Lars Reiffers are microcosmical surveys of a traditional topic: still lifes – he’s researching die world of blossoming plants, portrays cut flowers like jewelry and wildly growing blossoms. To make his works conform with his topic, he needs to have botanical skill: The works shown at the Galerie Isabelle Lesmeister depict plants that grow on sea level. “Sunken flowers”, that flourish in lakes, ponds and oceans in unseen places fascinate viewers through their larger than life sized, highly naturalistic display.
The artist got his diploma in 2003 at the Academy in Münster and has since been able to book exhibitions all across Germany, as well as Spain, ever since. Reiffers shows, what’s hidden beneath the surface. “AQUA” wants to invite the visitor, to dare the jump into the lake and the ocean at the Galerie Isabelle Lesmeister: from the silvery foil at the surface of the water, all the way down to the treasures at the ground.
