Color, Structure, Perception: Four Abstract Positions

The Glaspalast in Augsburg is a former industrial building whose light-flooded architecture creates a unique exhibition atmosphere. Modern and contemporary works of art are displayed here in two halls covering a total of 2,700 m². On April 17, the Glaspalast will be the venue for two parallel vernissages: At 6 p.m., Manuel Frattini: The Landscape of Painting and Shift of Vision. New Paths of Abstraction, which, as a pair of exhibitions and also individually, initiate conceptually exciting dialogues. The participating artists will be present at the openings. Both shows will then be on view until October 11.

Freiburg-based artist Manuel Frattini (born 1968) presents paintings and drawings that invite viewers to consciously experience color and gestural application of paint. The works represent abstract memories; through reduction, Frattini focuses on a new, attentive, and quiet experience of our environment—an ability that is in danger of being lost in the flood of digital images. His works are created by applying many layers of paint and evoke numerous associations through fragments. Frattini conceals nothing; the materiality of the medium and the traces of the paint application evoke an honesty that overcomes the distance between the viewer and the image and makes it easier to engage with new visual experiences. The exhibition was curated by Wolfgang Reichert in close collaboration with the artist.

The second exhibition, Shift of Vision. New Paths of Abstraction brings together works by Jutta Haeckel, Peter Krauskopf, and Moritz Neuhoff and examines the diversity and significance of abstract painting in the 21st century, which is shaped by digital aesthetics. Jutta Haeckel (*1972) translates digital images such as satellite photographs or architectural fragments into abstract pictorial spaces in which surface and depth blur into one another. Even before applying her sometimes impasto layers of paint, she works on the canvas: she pulls individual threads from the fabric, making it transparent in places. Haeckel's work thus reflects the permeability between the real world and pictorial space, medium of expression and materiality.

Peter Krauskopf (born 1966) and Moritz Neuhoff (born 1987) take different approaches. Krauskopf's work is characterized by gestural reduction and a deliberate play with layering and erosion. He subjects color-intensive backgrounds to controlled decomposition, creating a dialogue between surface and depth that is shaped in part by chance. Krauskopf's works bear witness to the temporal process of their own creation. Neuhoff's paintings are based on digital image cultures: they appear to be digitally manipulated images or glitches, but turn out to be analog works that reveal a subtle sensuality despite their coolness. The artist shows us how our perception—often unnoticed or unreflected—is increasingly influenced by screens and computer-based design. What all of the artists mentioned have in common is a conscious, decelerated viewing of images in the face of an unprecedented technical image revolution.

The images were added on April 20.