Spiky, Floral Creations Explore the Yin and Yang of Paper Art

Two European artists meet within a Parisian gallery space to consider their shared artistic tool of choice: paper.

Creating sculpted installations and 3D paintings, the exhibited artists, German artist Volker Kühn and French artist René Galassi, draw upon a long tradition of working with paper to challenge established perceptions of form, line, and material. The two-sided show is staged within the London offshoot of Galerie Artima.

On the other side of the coin is how the two artists differ from one another, in particular in their distinct palettes and design. Kühn, who puts thorough research into each and every one of his color choices, uses a gouache paints to hand-paint each of his spiky, spherical artworks. His series, when translated to English, is entitled Flowers.

Galassi on the other hand, is a fan of the traditional black-and-white coloring, preferring to fluctuate between monchrome colors when saturating her textural constructions calling to mind bleached-out rolling hills. The French artist explains she moved to working with unconventional textures and rougher materials when "flat supports didn't suit me anymore" and she felt a "strong necessity to invest myself within materials."

Kühn, in an official description of the show, also speaks to the importance of material in the ideal viewing of his blätter bilder assemblages: "From up close, the center [of my artwork] looks like chaos. But you need to step back for the shape to appear progressively. Elements gather and create a structure. Finally, when your vision encompasses the whole work, an impression of calm and serenity emerges.”

The dual show featuring work by René Galassi and Volker Kühn takes place at Galerie Artima in London from February 25–March 19, 2017. To learn more, visit the gallery’s website and Facebook page.

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