Monika Brandmeier

Contemplation

September 22 - November 17, 2019

Monika Brandmeier has been associated with the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen for a long time. She exhibited here as early as 1990/91 as part of a two-year exhibition project organised by the Ruhr Festival, which brought together artists from all over Europe. After almost thirty years, she is now returning with a solo exhibition.

Monika Brandmeier is a sculptor, draughtswoman and photographer. She also works with the medium of video. None of these artistic fields is subordinate to any other, even if the sculptor takes centre stage. Sculpture, photography and video, for example, reveal a constant dialogue with the graphic work, which to a certain extent contains the inventory of the entire artistic practice. However, nothing in the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen seems to be associated with the traditional concept of sculpture. Monika Brandmeier develops her works from the poetry of the tangible and its materiality. In doing so, she basically formulates elementary, almost self-evident facts and translates our experience of the world and life into images with astonishing simplicity.

Born in Kamen, Monika Brandmeier initially studied visual communication at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She then went on to study at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig and finally transferred to the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, where she graduated as a master student of Erich Reusch. In 1995, she was appointed Professor of Design and Plastic Design at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld. She has been Professor of Sculpture at the Dresden University of Fine Arts since 2001. Monika Brandmeier now lives in Berlin and Dresden.