An exhibition with works by JOHN FRANZEN + PEER KRIESEL – 02.09. – 14.10.2022
@ SCHLIEDER CONTEMPORARY – FRANKFURT AM MAIN
Encounters showed the latest works by John Franzen (*1981) and myself in a double exhibition. The encounters refer to the meeting of two artists working in opposite directions, the overlapping of lines with pictorial elements and the viewer’s interaction with the artwork.
John Franzen’s mirror works in his Creation is Destruction series focus on the interaction of the artist and later the viewer with the work. At first glance, the mirrored steel plates, into which rough axe cuts have been hammered, disturb the eye of the naturally narcissistic observer and encourage a critical examination of one’s own perception.
Franzen’s second series of works, Each Line one Breath, is also dedicated to his own existence in the partial form of his breathing. Each breath is meditatively documented with a line, similar to a ritual. The two seemingly disparate series are linked in a logical, complementary way: the drawings represent the spiritual side of our being, while the steel works represent the physical side.
My works are visually flooded and reflect the information overload and extremes of our digitalized society. My pictures are often created on paper that has already been used, that previously had a specific function and has lost its value within a short or very long period of time, such as train tickets or my latest series of works consisting of historical, overpainted sea and land maps. The overpainting gives them a new context. They are imaginative worlds in which mixed creatures of flora, fauna and humans interact with geometric forms that overlay the action or form poles of calm.
Schlieder Contemporary
Weckmarkt 3
60311 Frankfurt am Main
www.schliedercontemporary.com
Exhibition views/photos: Wolfgang Stahr