Recap of the MeetFrida Artist Residency Group Show

In October 2021, the MeetFrida Artist Residency offered ten Hamburg artists the opportunity for creative development. This month of collaborative work on site culminated in a group show that will end shortly before Christmas on December 18.
This exhibition is not only the result of the collaboration between the participating artists, but also the prelude to the one-year presence of the MeetFrida Art Space at stilwerk.

The main idea of the residency was "Fast Forward", in the broadest sense it was about the artistic exploration of the world after Corona. The artists experimented with the dimensions of the exhibition space, drawing inspiration from each other and using new formats. From figurative painting to abstraction and conceptual projects to spatial installations and sculptural works, the artists unfolded the full spectrum of artistic work.

The paintings of Stephan Hohenthanner surprise by their only seeming photorealism. Similar to impressionist paintings, the motif dissolves into abstract imagery upon closer inspection, turning everyday scenes into color studies alongside social observations. Inspired by the new neighborhood in the exhibition, Hohenthanner painted an abstract picture for the first time during the residency.

With her installation, Greek artist Penny Monogiou ties up with the way her home country deals with art and culture. The model for her drawings, which hang from the ceiling on four long panels, were the six caryatids on the south side of the Erechtheion temple, the ruins of which stand on the Acropolis in Athens. The fifth female figure can be seen through picture glasses as if in a peep-box. The sixth figure is missing completely. Also in Athens there are only five of six caryatids of the temple Erechtheion. The missing figure can be found in the British Museum in the United Kingdom.

Jana Schumacher's installation, which stands in the center of the exhibition space, consists of vertically placed drill cores and many, colorful wax forms that form an imaginative castle. During the residency, the artist experimented extensively with wax for the first time, also creating other wax works, two smaller reliefs.

Magda Krawcewicz stages her objects in black display cases, as if in a natural history cabinet. Krawcewicz explores the theme of memory throughout the presentation at Art Space. The glazed masks are often presented in fragments or with the back open, as if one could peek inside the head. The artist calls these objects "engrams," a term from brain research that means physical traces of memory in the human brain.

Ki Yoon Ko shows paintings from the "Right Hand Series" and the "Left Hand Series" at Stilwerk. New is his "Left Hand Series", which he paints with his left hand. During the residency, he created a huge, comic-like head with protruding yellow teeth. Switching from right to left hand was a new artistic challenge, making the painting process more intuitive. In Ki Yoon Ko's work, comic-like figures peppered with black humor are the main result.

The artist duo Einsiedel+Jung is strongly inspired by the different places they travel to. Often they bring from these trips not only impressions of the living conditions, but also objects, from which their versatile and multi-layered works of art are eventually created. A very good example of this is the fountain that consists of colorful plastic bowls and is a symbol of the pollution of water and drinking water by plastic waste.

At first, Nis Knudsen's works on paper appear restrained in muted hues. But by applying many layers of different pigments, rubbed onto and into the paper with fingers and cellulose cloths, a rich color impression is created. Knudsen is interested in repetition, doing the same thing but never the identical thing. That is why all his works on paper have the same composition, but always different colors.

In the upper part of the Art Space, a bundle of colors zigzags through the room like a rainbow. Darko Caramello Nikolic's installation is reminiscent of physics experiments with light: a ray of sunlight is refracted through a prism so that the light waves of different lengths fan out. The result is a beam of light in rainbow colors. Nikolic worked with strings for the first time during the residency fellowship. For this installation, the artist tried different angles and arrangements until the final appearance was determined. This work will also remain at Art Space for the time being.