26.08. – 30.09.06
Berlin - Zurich
Björn Dahlem, Jeroen Jacobs, Katharina Jahnke, Michael Kalki, Marcus Knupp, Regine Müller-Waldeck, Anselm Reyle

PRESS RELEASE
Arndt & Partner Zurich, in collaboration with a number of young Berlin galleries, are pleased to present seven upcoming artists.
The waxen sculptures of Regine Müller-Waldeck (born 1975 in Greifswald, Germany, represented by AMERIKA) have something uncanny about them. Casts of body fragments or piles of stiff, empty shells of clothing fill the room with an uneasy sense of absence. With her sculptural constructions which are reminiscent of architectural props, Katharina Jahnke (born 1968 in Berlin, represented by Galerie Kamm) creates the impression of abandonment. She uses pieces of wood and mirror to form sculptures resembling ghostly model buildings which could just as easily represent ingenious architectural designs as fragile pieces of shanty town huts.
Björn Dahlem (born 1974 in Munich, represented by Galerie Guido W. Baudach) also uses simple DIY materials and combines them with found objects for his apparently nonsense installations. Behind the aesthetic strangeness lies the idea of visualizing the at times inscrutable complexity of scientific theories. Anselm Reyle (born 1970 in Tübingen, Germany, represented by Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch) uses reflective foil in a consciously decorative fashion, as he avails himself of the achievements of Modern Art and its claims to transcendence and undermines it with wit and "coolness". With brightly coloured crinkled reliefs and knotted neon lights he alludes to the heroes of Pop and Minimal Art and transfers their dogmas to an aesthetic which comes dangerously close to the glitzy charm of the 1980s.
The pictures of Michael Kalki (born 1969 in Ravensburg, Germany, represented by Galerie Jan Wentrup) are also characterised by "coolness". The computer-generated collage-like works depict colourful town scenes, which could easily be spin offs of Expressionist street scenes by George Grosz or Emil Nolde. Marcus Knupp (born 1978 in Wiesbaden, Germany, represented by Peres Projects) also assembles futuristic-surreal motifs in his pictures. His nightmarish scenes are depicted against a dark ground and convey the menacing end time-atmosphere of an artificial world. In comparison to this, the sculptures of Jeroen Jacobs (born 1968 in Helmond, The Netherlands, represented by magnusmüller) seem like archaic miniature ruins from the modern era. Variously shaped concrete casts are the models from which surprisingly elegant structures emerge.