Sibylle Springer
GLEAM
20.09. – 08.11.2009

Under the title “Gleam”, the Kunstverein Bremerhaven is showing current works by the painter Sibylle Springer. Sibylle Springer (born 1975) is no stranger to Bremerhaven. Back in 2002, as a student, she took part in the exhibition “Klasse. Karin Kneffel” at the Kunsthalle. Two years later, the then graduate of the University of the Arts in Bremen had an exhibition together with Patricia Lambertus in the administration building of a local energy provider, which was curated by the Kunstverein. A solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle now follows to document the most recent development of this young painter, who was awarded the highly prestigious Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship in 2008, among others.

The exhibition announcement in the art magazine “artist” states: “She succeeds in using painterly means to freeze intermediate states, to create suspended states and ambivalences. Figures seem to float as well as fall, spaces open and close. Her current works tie in with earlier groups of works and at the same time set new accents. In particular, the impressions and experiences gained during a DAAD scholarship in the global metropolis of New York have left their mark on her work.”

There, among other things, the everyday journey on the subway led to new pictorial ideas:
“During night-time journeys on the subway, you often passed tunnels where repairs were being carried out. The train moved very slowly and, as a curious passenger, I could see in the spotlit shafts that the tunnels seemed to be completely painted. Magnificent graffiti, possibly ancient as well as brand new signs, could be seen for fractions of a moment before everything was swallowed up by the darkness again.”

The artist thematizes the fleeting experience of the passing, illuminating graffiti in the series of so-called “underground paintings”. In this set of works, however, the graffiti is no longer the recognizable motif at the center of the picture, unlike the floating figures in earlier paintings: “The new works explore the relationship between abstraction and objectivity, between color space and real architecture in a new way. Sometimes these two central elements find a balance, sometimes representational relics predominate, sometimes abstract streaks of color. Her works neither directly depict reality, nor do they exhaust themselves in a purely formal treatment of color, surface and form.” (artist)

With her current works, Sibylle Springer thus finds herself on an exciting tightrope walk between realism and abstraction, which opens up a variety of visual impressions for the visitor.

Curated by Thomas Trümper.