Contemporary Artist Nadine Schemmann Unveils Three Simultaneous Presentations Of All New Work
Schemmann’s painterly constellations find their origin in the interstice of interactions, as she transforms her textiles into ‘chromatic conversations’ reflecting the fragility of interpersonal relationships evoking natural, cosmic, and personal mysteries beyond and within.
‘Behind Flying Fields’ at Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln‘Sculpture Project’ at Art Dusseldorf‘Only Metaphors of Acting’ at KJUBH Kunstverein, Köln in collaboration with Galerie Norbert Arns
This spring, contemporary Berlin-based artist Nadine Schemmann will unveil all new works on linen canvas exploring modes of communication through painterly constellations, at multiple solo exhibitions and presentations, including ‘Behind Flying Fields’ at Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln, on view from April 13 – June 1, 2024, a presentation at Art Dusseldorf with Galerie Norbert Arns and participation in ‘Sculpture Project’ selected by the fair’s jury, from April 12 – 14, 2024, and a solo exhibition ‘Only Metaphors of Acting’ at KJUBH Kunstverein, Köln in collaboration with Galerie Norbert Arns on view from April 13 – May 18, 2024. Her abstract canvases, enveloped in sophisticated plumes of color and floating forms set on raw linen, spring emotional interactions through form and color, echoing the spoken and the unspoken explored in interpersonal relationships.
Predominantly working with large-format linen and various techniques, Schemmann’s work undergoes an alchemic process of integral transformation, starting with an examination of its constituent parts, beginning with the texture and tone of the base, the Belgian linen. These extended fields of canvas are firstly bleached and hung out to dry, followed by the application of suspended pigments such as ink or oil paint, resulting in striking, but unexpected color paths forming organic, endlessly changeable edges on the linen canvas. As the artist handles this material, it conveys an abstract intimacy suggested by forms competing, touching, coming together, and moving. This process becomes a private performance, resulting in a material conversation and relationship developing something not seen through something already known. Often, they hang freely in a space, or nature, where they are exposed to wind and weather, where the color and fabric change with time and only sometimes the artist stretches the linen fabrics on frames.
Exploring the various layers reflective of human encounters, Schemmann materializes feelings as different shades, creating an expressive and sensory visual language, while translating encounters as the deepest and most honest form of dialogue. As seen in her piece Universe Owes You Something, 2023 (the first painting), the artist creates billowing shapes in her favored palette of deep saturated reds and blues playing a leading role, becoming an amorphous melding of tones and elements, offering palpable intensity open to interpretation.
Crafting the space that remains free of color and that which is delimited by cut edges and seams, the artist becomes both a painter and a sculptor. Every texture, transition, edge, border, flow, and seam is on display and rendered meaningful. Typically, her sculptures hang in clumps, or as improvised partitions or cave-like theatric drops, and of late, nodes and other organic forms are emerging from her studio as well.
As her pieces expand and take on room-filling dimensions, expanding in all directions out of necessity to exist beyond the confinement of frames, they encourage a full-body one-on-one experience. Ultimately, Schemmann creates immersive environments composed of riotous fabric and color underpinning her works in the continuing authenticity of direct expression, as well as the capability of the shared experience they might stimulate. As her work encourages free associations in her viewers, Schemmann explains: ‘The title of my upcoming exhibition ‘Behind Flying Fields’ at Nobert Arns, has this mood of diving more into chaos, or darker side. One might see beauty and poetry in my work, but then you might also realize too late that your demons have consumed you.’
