BERLIN.- Galerie Michael Janssen announces Paper does not blush, a group exhibition with artists of the gallery program. The exhibition focuses on works on paper, including prints, illustrated books, and selected drawings, that explore and manipulate the materiality of paper itself. On view are works by Yoshitaka Amano, Gianfranco Baruchello, Meg Cranston, Lili Dujourie, Monique van Genderen, Emil Holmer, Christof Mascher, Christoph Steinmeyer, Shaan Syed, Joris Van de Moortel and Mario Ybarra Jr.
Yoshitaka Amano gained fame in the 1970’s creating anime, manga and video game characters. He combines traditions of Japanese painting with western influences and popular culture.
The extensive and complex oeuvre of Gianfranco Baruchello goes back to the 1960’s. An important part of his artistic expression are his assemblages composed of cutouts from magazines, self-painted paper and small objects in boxes made of wood and Plexiglas that offer a glimpse into filigree universes.
Meg Cranston‘s work includes sculptures, drawing, collages, photographs and installations. Her longstanding interest in anthropology and cultural history have always shaped her approach to making art in both material and conceptual ways.
Lili Dujourie is continuously concerned with contemporary reinterpretations of themes, forms and gestures from art history. In her articulation of minimalism and conceptual ideas, her works draw questions on the relation between matter and subject and how these relate to perception.
Monique van Genderen explores elements of narrative, illusion and figuration within abstraction by allowing the surface and material to narrate the picture plane rather than a subject.
Playing with a ready-made language and graffiti style Emil Holmer’s artistic rhetoric is both subjective and impartial in which collages of medical and pornographic material meet total abstraction.
Christof Mascher creates worlds in which utopian notions are fused with apocalyptic visions revealing contradictions and unexpected interruptions. Influenced by both high and mass culture his visual language follows its own iconography.
Christoph Steinmeyer uses motifs gleaned from European painting traditions and filmic replicas. He has adopted a multiple transformation process in order to generate images that alienate the original motif.
The heavy and highly textured surfaces of Shaan Syed’s works betray his interest in notions around real and painterly space. Playing with what is written on the horizon line where pigments seemingly merge Syed invokes hope and ambitions associated with the wide-open landscape.
Joris Van de Moortel arranges objects in extreme situations stripping them of their original function. Inspired by found situations as well as by music his works often have no definite beginning, middle or end. Leading them toward „predicable incidents” he explores the point at which something turns „performative“.
Mario Ybarra Jr. draws attention to forms of culture on the fringe of the mainstream. Influenced by graffiti and early cartoons he doesn’t reject his Mexican-American identity.
