Schemmann’s painterly constellations find their origin in the interstice of interactions, as she transforms her textiles into ‘chromatic conversations’ reflecting the fragility of interpersonal relationships evoking natural, cosmic, and personal mysteries beyond and within.
‘Behind Flying Fields’ at Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln
‘Sculpture Project’ at Art Dusseldorf
‘Only Metaphors of Acting’ at KJUBH Kunstverein, Köln in collaboration with Galerie Norbert Arns
April 4, 2024 (Köln, Germany) – This spring, contemporary Berlin-based artist Nadine Schemmann will unveil all new works on linen canvas exploring modes of communication through painterly constellations, at multiple solo exhibitions and presentations, including ‘Behind Flying Fields’ at Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln, on view from April 13 – June 1, 2024, a presentation at Art Dusseldorf with Galerie Norbert Arns and participation in ‘Sculpture Project’ selected by the fair’s jury, from April 12 – 14, 2024, and a solo exhibition ‘Only Metaphors of Acting’ at KJUBH Kunstverein, Köln in collaboration with Galerie Norbert Arns on view from April 13 – May 18, 2024. Her abstract canvases, enveloped in sophisticated plumes of color and floating forms set on raw linen, spring emotional interactions through form and color, echoing the spoken and the unspoken explored in interpersonal relationships.
Predominantly working with large-format linen and various techniques, Schemmann’s work undergoes an alchemic process of integral transformation, starting with an examination of its constituent parts, beginning with the texture and tone of the base, the Belgian linen. These extended fields of canvas are firstly bleached and hung out to dry, followed by the application of suspended pigments such as ink or oil paint, resulting in striking, but unexpected color paths forming organic, endlessly changeable edges on the linen canvas. As the artist handles this material, it conveys an abstract intimacy suggested by forms competing, touching, coming together, and moving. This process becomes a private performance, resulting in a material conversation and relationship developing something not seen through something already known. Often, they hang freely in a space, or nature, where they are exposed to wind and weather, where the color and fabric change with time and only sometimes the artist stretches the linen fabrics on frames.
Exploring the various layers reflective of human encounters, Schemmann materializes feelings as different shades, creating an expressive and sensory visual language, while translating encounters as the deepest and most honest form of dialogue. As seen in her piece Universe Owes You Something, 2023 (the first painting), the artist creates billowing shapes in her favored palette of deep saturated reds and blues playing a leading role, becoming an amorphous melding of tones and elements, offering palpable intensity open to interpretation.
Crafting the space that remains free of color and that which is delimited by cut edges and seams, the artist becomes both a painter and a sculptor. Every texture, transition, edge, border, flow, and seam is on display and rendered meaningful. Typically, her sculptures hang in clumps, or as improvised partitions or cave-like theatric drops, and of late, nodes and other organic forms are emerging from her studio as well.
As her pieces expand and take on room-filling dimensions, expanding in all directions out of necessity to exist beyond the confinement of frames, they encourage a full-body one-on-one experience. Ultimately, Schemmann creates immersive environments composed of riotous fabric and color underpinning her works in the continuing authenticity of direct expression, as well as the capability of the shared experience they might stimulate. As her work encourages free associations in her viewers, Schemmann explains: ‘The title of my upcoming exhibition ‘Behind flying fields’ at Nobert Arns, has this mood of diving more into chaos, or darker side. One might see beauty and poetry in my work, but then you might also realize too late that your demons have consumed you.’
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Galerie Norbert Arns
‘Behind flying fields’ by Nadine Schemmann | On view from April 13 - June 1, 2024
Opening: April 12, 2024, 6-9 pm Lindenstraße 19, 50674 Cologne
kjubh Kunstverein e.V.
‘Only metaphors of acting’ by Nadine Schemmann, invited by Anika Gebauer-Aulbach and Jürgen Menten | On view from
April 13 - May 18, 2024
Opening: April 12, 2024, 6-9 pm
Dasselstraße 75, 50674 Cologne
Art Düsseldorf | April 12-14, 2024
Galerie Norbert Arns | Booth A05 & ‘Sculpture Projects’ S03: Nadine Schemmann
Artist Talk | April 19, 2024
Nadine Schemmann in conversation with Prof. Uta Brandes
on April 19, 2024, at 7pm
Reading Room of Museum Ludwig’s ‘Art and Museum Library’
Hein-rich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Cologne
ABOUT NADINE SCHEMMANN:
Nadine Schemmann is a contemporary German visual artist. She studied design and fashion at the Cologne International School of Design from 1997 - 2000 and at the Berlin University of the Arts from 2004 - 2006. In 2001 she moved to Berlin and worked as a freelance designer and internationally recognized fashion illustrator until 2018.
Working with encounters in the broadest sense, her work arises from the need to translate encounters, conversations and moments to give them a lasting expression. In doing so, Schemmann recalls these moments and feelings as colors that then meet again on the canvas. Her own artistic practice is constantly evolving and presented in solo and group exhibitions. Most recently at Museum Wiesbaden, Schlossgut Schwandte, Kunsthaus Lempertz, Studio Berlin in cooperation with Boros Collection, and TEXT-ile at Galerie Haverkampf & Leistenschneider, among others.
Image Credits:
1.Close up of Universe Owes You Something, 2023 40 × 30 cm, ink and chlorine bleach on canvas. Credit Studio Nadine Schemmann.
2&3.Left. Things behind flying fields. Ink, oil paint and chlorine bleach on sewn linen. Detail /Installation Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden 2024. Credit Studio Nadine Schemmann Right. Waving ghosts (..) stuck in old laundry. Ink, oil paint and chlorine bleach on sewn linen. 280 x 240 cm. Berlin, 2023-24. Credit Studio Nadine Schemmann
4. Courtesy of Studio Nadine Schemmann.