EMERGENCE • PLUS THREE

GWK-Prizewinners in Recklinghausen
Justyna Janetzek, Danuta Karsten, Katrin Wegemann, Markus Willeke

Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
November 29, 2020 - March 28, 2021 
 

The two-part exhibition EMERGENCE - PLUS DREI shows works by the current GWK award winner Justyna Janetzek under the title EMERGENCE. PLUS DREI is dedicated to previous GWK prizewinners from Recklinghausen: Danuta Karsten, Katrin Wegemann and Markus Willeke.

Invitation Justyna Janetzek – EMERGENCE
Invitation Plus Three – Danuta Karsten, Katrin Wegemann, Markus Willeke

JUSTYNA JANETZEK

*1986 in Klosterbrück, Poland, 2006-2009 Institute of Art at the University of Opole, Poland, 2009-2016 Münster Art Academy, since 2010 studies with professors Maik and Dirk Löbbert, 2013 master student, 2016 diploma, GWK Sponsorship Award winner 2020, lives in Viersen.

This year's GWK Sponsorship Award for Art goes to the sculptor and draughtswoman Justyna Janetzek. The jury recognised Janetzek's work as mature and independent, well thought-out and, for all its minimalism, sensually highly contemporary, as perfectly crafted and aesthetically sophisticated and appealing. Provocative, but always sensitive, the 34-year-old intervenes in exterior and interior spaces with site-specific sculptures made of painted tubular steel and coloured surfaces that resemble drawings in space, or she enchants them in an irritating way. Regardless of whether the artist's interventions are real or conceived for virtual space, as a network project, or whether they take place on colour drawings on paper, they always trigger an exciting, open visual process in the viewer. In this way, the concepts of movement and rigidity, line and surface, plane and space become mobile in our engagement with Janetzek's works, and our ideas of fixed objecthood, clear meaning and unambiguous references in space become dazzling. This is fascinating and happens when the viewers themselves move around Justyna Janetzek's works and at the same time change their space with the objects. 

www.justyna-janetzek.de

DANUTA KARSTEN

*1963 Mała Slonca, Poland, 1983-1985 Gdansk State Academy of Fine Arts, Poland, 1986-1993 Düsseldorf Art Academy, GWK sponsorship award winner 1997, lives in Recklinghausen

Everyday material and everyday element: for her installation, Danuta Karsten filled transparent plastic tubes with human breath and ‘drew’ with them in the exhibition space. The three-dimensional drawing is as if transparent, yet at the same time dense, or stable and fragile; it hangs lightly in the room and touches the floor; even a gentle breeze can move it. Changing daylight falls in from outside, the artificial light in the room changes almost imperceptibly. The tubes reflect this; light and shadow, air and temperature play with them. An atmosphere that is enchanting and invites contemplation of our food and resources, both natural and aesthetic. 

www.danutakarsten.com

KATRIN WEGEMANN

*1982 Recklinghausen, 2002-2003 Kunstakademie Münster, 2003-2007 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 2005-2006 Accademia di belle arti Lorenzo da Viterbo, Italy, 2007-2008 Kunsthochschule Berlin, GWK-Förderpreispreisin 2010, lives in Berlin

As if processes were frozen. They seem to capture the stages of mutation of beings that cannot be named: Katrin Wegemann's ceramics appear organic, alive, but they are not depictions of real creatures and cannot be defined. You feel reminded of something, a world of associations opens up, free, mobile, open. Wegemann: ‘For me, it was like creating a comic figure that then develops its own life, its own character and takes on a life of its own. There were sketches, but sometimes something new emerged out of the moment during the working process.’

www.katrinwegemann.de

MARKUS WILLEKE

*1971 Recklinghausen, 1992-2000 Kunstakademie Münster, GWK-Förderpreis Kunst 2005, lives in Berlin

A series of portraits of cats, painted from photos on posters on trees and street lamps: With ‘Lost Cat’, Markus Willeke shows paintings based on photos of missing animals that were snapped in happy times. Willeke: ‘I look for motifs in everyday life and when travelling that are in the tradition of the memento mori and deal with mortality, loss and transience. I am fascinated by the fact that the photos of escaped cats are actually illusions. They no longer correspond to reality. By strongly liquefying the oil and varnish paints when converting the photos into paintings and taking the merging of the colours into account, the colours themselves become a decisive part of the process of disappearance.’

www.markuswilleke.de

GWK-FÖRDERPREIS KUNST

Every year, the GWK Society for Westphalian Cultural Work honours a young artist from Westphalia-Lippe who has made a name for himself or herself through outstanding work and is no older than 35 years with the GWK Art Sponsorship Award. The prize is endowed with 4,000 euro, an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, a catalogue and inclusion in a multi-year sponsorship programme. Members of the jury were: Dr Andrea Brockmann, director of the Paderborn Municipal Museums and Galleries, Maurice Funken, director of the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Dr Stefan Rasche, co-owner of the Berlin gallery Rasche Ripken, the director of the museums of the city of Recklinghausen, Dr Hans-Jürgen Schwalm, and Dr Ulf Sölter, director of the Gustav-Lübcke-Museum Hamm.

More informatioin on the GWK