Press : Licht und Schatten. Made in Düsseldorf #6: Janice Guy / Martina Sauter / Elger Esser / Anna Vogel / Eileen Quinlan / Frauke Dannert

LICHT UND SCHATTEN
Made in Düsseldorf #6: Janice Guy / Martina Sauter / Elger Esser / Anna Vogel / Eileen Quinlan / Frauke Dannert

13 September - 27 October 2024

Made in Düsseldorf is an exhibition series by the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf in cooperation with the NRW-Forum. It is dedicated to contemporary artists who are connected to Düsseldorf and the Rhineland through their studies, their place of residence or their artistic content. The sixth exhibition, titled Licht und Schatten (Light and Shadow), runs from 13 September to 27 October 2024 and presents photographic works from the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s collection by Janice Guy, Martina Sauter, Elger Esser, Anna Vogel, Eileen Quinlan and Frauke Dannert. All of the artists negotiate the limitations and possibilities of photography and illustrate the many different shades of the medium.

In the nine-part series by Janice Guy (b. 1951), the artist and camera become collaborative subjects. The roles of photographer and model merge together: Guy focuses the lens on herself as her hands and the camera cast shadows on her body. The series was produced during her time at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and presents an outstanding composition of light and shadow from an emotional distance.

Martina Sauter (b. 1974) explores the restricted nature of everyday life during the coronavirus pandemic in her work News:Fiction. At the start of the 2020 pandemic, the artist began collecting press images and juxtaposing them with screenshots from the British thriller series Fortitude. The resulting pictorial compositions are reminiscent of something from a science-fiction novel and incorporate scenes from day-to-day life during the pandemic. Lived reality and images from a fictional series merge to form a single entity.

We move on from the depressing reality that we all experienced to places of longing. The selected heliogravures from Elger Esser’s Combray series depict provincial landscapes in France. In search of the fictional town invented by Marcel Proust, Elger Esser (b. 1967) travelled deep into the French countryside to collect motifs of villages, landscapes and architecture. These are combined in this series to create a tranquil panorama of a place of longing.

Anna Vogel (b. 1981) has been critically examining the perception of photographs for several years now. Her artistic work is situated in the tension between reality and (optical) illusion and seeks to challenge the way we view things. By combining various techniques such as photography, drawing and printing, Anna Vogel creates new pictorial spaces that expand the boundaries of the medium of photography and explore themes relating to digital communication, nature, history and biology.

Testing the limits of photography and producing images using experimental techniques – whether digital or analogue, downloaded or photographed – as well as trying out new materials are also central elements of the oeuvre of Eileen Quinlan (b. 1972). Her works are characterised by the abstraction of space and the creation of vibrant surfaces. In focusing on contemporary consumer worlds and playing with the genre of product photography, she scrutinises the role of photography in society, firmly positions herself as a feminist artist and also engages in contemporary political discourses.

Extraordinary spatial structures and superimpositions result in unique pictorial compositions in the series Parkhaus and Gropius by Frauke Dannert (b. 1979). Using multiple exposures, the artist develops a kaleidoscopic formal vocabulary: the superimposed architectural fragments are transformed into floating structures that cannot be traced back to their original source. Only the titles of the works provide clues about what they depict.

The Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s commitment to the NRW-Forum

The Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf has been supporting the NRW-Forum in its exhibition and education projects as a partner of the institution since 2017. Promoting the arts and supporting cultural institutions in Düsseldorf represent an important part of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s social commitment.

The Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s art collection was launched in the 1970s by Fritz Kulins, then chairman of the board. The first works found their way into the collection through corporate exhibitions. The works added to the collection were primarily by students at the art academy, but also by important representatives of the Düsseldorf art scene. In 2008, a cooperation with the Kunstpalast resulted in the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s collection at the Kunstpalast. The artists represented in the collection have a connection to Düsseldorf or the Rhineland through their place of residence, their studies, or their personal or professional relationships.

With these new acquisitions and the focus on the medium of photography, the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf is helping the Kunstpalast to expand its photography collection. In the annual Made in Düsseldorf exhibition, a selection of these new acquisitions – which are based on recommendations made by Linda Conze, the head of the photography collection at the Kunstpalast – are presented to the public at the NRW-Forum.

The exhibition is curated by Katharina Wettwer, curator of the Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf (Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf Art and Cultural Foundation).
(katharina.wettwer@sskduesseldorf.de, +49 (0) 211 – 878 1395).

LICHT UND SCHATTEN.
MADE IN DÜSSELDORF #6: Janice Guy/Martina Sauter/Elger Esser/Anna Vogel/Eileen Quinlan/Frauke Dannert

Duration: 13 September - 27 October 2024
Opening: 12 September 2024, 7 pm
Press-Preview: 12 September 2024, 11 am

Curator: Katharina Wettwer, curator of the Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf (Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf Art and Cultural Foundation).
Artists: Janice Guy, Martina Sauter, Elger Esser, Anna Vogel, Eileen Quinlan, Frauke Dannert

Press images

Please note: The use of the image material is only permitted free of charge in connection with current journalistic reporting on the relevant exhibitions and events, provided that the copyright is mentioned. Cropping of the images is not permitted.

The use of the works is only permitted until 8 November 2024 due to the VG-Bildkunst regulation.