BERLIN.- Cain Schulte Contemporary Art Berlin starts the new Year showing photoengravings and etchings by Matthew Barney as well as sculptures and drawings by Sandra Munzel. Barney and Munzel both deal with the afflictions of the human body – Barney in a visually staged vehemence and Munzel by cautiously sketching our fantasies. An opening reception will be held on January, 21st, 2011 at 7 pm, Sandra Munzel will be present.

These are not fairy tale characters with shiny surfaces, the created forms are too irritating and too eccentric. More likely, they rise out the mythological shere: with horns, fur on their legs, multiple breats, creatures devoured by themselves...

It is exacly this going beyond into the grotesque that clears the way for unchecked permissiveness and love of life – both totally embodied in Munzel’s figurines...

-Udo Kittelmann Horror vacui or: From the Beginnings (Exhibition catalog: Sandra Munzel Hidden Pieces)

The unashamed nakedness in which Munzel presents her figurines can, at first, irritate the viewer. The small creatures – many not taller than six inches – are fusions of humans and animals or strangely mutated human beings with only rudimentary developed limbs. Some of the „Little Saints“ are dislocated into a floating position. The delicate colors, fascinating surfaces and their serene gaze, contradict the fantasmagoric parahumans and create a memorable impression.

Munzel´s sculptures are allegories of the unconsciousness we meet in our dreams, bringing the unspoken and hidden the the surface.