left: INGA KERBER, DEMOISELLE DANS LES PLANTES ( POSES VARIÉS ), 2020, drawing, oil pastel, colored pencil, ink on paper, 35 x 25 cm
right: CORINNE VON LEBUSA, HELLO DOC, 2019, drawing, watercolor, lacquer on cardboard, 40 × 30 cm
Visitors of the current exhibition at Jarmuschek + Partner gallery are lured „Dans mon lit - Into my bed“ by Inga Kerber and Corinne von Lebusa. In a world of a perceived permanent social public sphere, the bed may at first seem like the last bastion of privacy. Inga Kerber and Corinne von Lebusa bring this place into focus as a setting for encounters, directing their attention to a common theme: their central figure is the woman.
Provocative or sensually seductive, strong or vulnerable - the female figures in Corinne von Lebusa‘s narrative paintings appear in a multitude of possible roles. The artist picks up existing clichés playfully and with a wink. She places her protagonists into situations that puzzle us and fire our own imagination. Given the the cinematic compositions, we almost automatically begin to reconstruct the before and after in an individual way. What cannot be seen is created before the mind‘s eye. Immediately one wants to ask for the meaning: What is this story about, who are the protagonists and what attitude can be taken to what is observed? Are we encountering a male fantasy here, a dream sequence or the depiction of an actual event? Like through a keyhole, scenes of submission, control or uncontrolledness can be seen, in which men appear mostly as shadowy figures or fragmentary. The ambivalence of the pictorial event is underlined by the ambiguous titles, which often contain ironic-humorous commentaries. Corinne von Lebusa holds a mirror up to us and confronts us with the pigeonholes, looks and experiences that we carry within ourselves.
With energetic strokes, Inga Kerber draws the woman in poses that almost completely fill the picture. Again and again she varies postures and forms, letting her figures perform wild contortions and turns. Despite their proven elasticity and great immanent dynamism, they sometimes seem mysteriously arrested on the pictorial ground, manifested and still. Expressive gestures combined with high-contrast, strong colors make the individual female bodies appear alive and statuesque eternal at the same time. They almost seem like symbols for something not yet tangible, but vaguely reminiscent of something already known: satyr-like silhouettes on ancient Greek vases, orientalizing deities, expressive dancers or images of the supposedly free, primal, and wild may come to the viewer‘s mind. In their multiplicity, however, these „Demoiselles dans les Plantes“ are at least as much a collection, a treasure trove of forms. Wavy lines, ornamental curlicues and stylized plants play around them, appear as clothing patterns, give each one a different spatial context, sometimes close to nature. Together with atmospherically charged colorfulness, they give each of the paintings sensuality and joie de vivre. Cleverly and enigmatic, Inga Kerber combines her drawings with so-called tapis, painted textiles, whose materiality and installative content give the artistic approach a further content-related and sensual-aesthetic dimension.
Inga Kerber and Corinne von Lebusa show us female figures in manifold facets and still draw our attention to a small section of a truth that can be thought, concidered and drawn ahead infinitely. Both give a perspective on something that already exists in our world: Attitude, staging, pose, culture, history and stories. With a fascinating lightness, their works animate us to reflect and observate and let us search for a quintessence especially in ourselves.
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The Leipzig-based artists Inga Kerber and Corinne von Lebusa have known each other for many years. The proximity of their studios in the Baumwollspinnerei and a regular, personal exchange of ideas enable them to inspire each other again and again. The two have already exhibited together nationally and internationally. For „Dans mon lit“ they have jointly designed an artist‘s book.
Corinne von Lebusa was born in Herzberg in 1978. After studying fashion and graphic design at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Fine Arts in Halle, she began her painting studies with Prof. Arno Rink at the HGB Leipzig in 2001, which she completed in 2008 with Prof. Neo Rauch with a diploma. Corinne von Lebusa has developed and perfected her unique artistic technique over a long period of time. The atmosphere and the diffuse light effect of her works are created by painting watercolor layer by layer into an absorbent paper and finally fixing the image with a UV varnish.
Inga Kerber studied photography at the photography school at Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, at the HGB Leipzig and at the École Nationale Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France. Since then, her work has repeatedly explored the process of image reproduction, depiction and perception. In addition to her constantly growing photo archive, the artist works in painting and drawing as well as with plants and found objects. Often, these medially different works are combined with each other to form spatial installations.
“DANS MON LIT” AS 360° 3D-TOUR | BY COURTESY OF ART@BERLIN | WWW.ARTATBERLIN.COM
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