Crystal Ball Berlin – Page 3 – Gegenwartskunst und Performance

Sigrun Paulsen

Malerei/ Installation, 17.9. bis 21.11.2021

Vernissage am Freitag, 17. September um 19 Uhr

Am Sonntag, 21. November ist die Künstlerin von 15 bis 19 Uhr in der Ausstellung

Sigrun Paulsen, Zweimal Rot, 185 x 140 cm, Berlin 2021

Sigrun Paulsen works in a concentrated way on colour and its effects with the aspects of representationalism. These effects are partly realised in auratically luminous paintings. Paulsen exemplifies how her colour tones and combinations create representationalism in her Colour Reflections series. At first glance, the object pictures of the series of the same name appear like wooden boxes containing neon tubes. Eventually one discovers that there are no tubes, that Paulsen has created this object effect solely through the virtuoso use of colouration. Our perception first creates the impression of matter, as the reflection on a real object would. But by separating the effects from the depiction of the physical, the artist is able to capture the pure glow of the colours. Sigrun Paulsen’s interest is in these invisible areas, the shimmering, energetic sounds of the colour combinations. In her stripe paintings, these effects are masterfully calculated. All her realisations are tested in long colour rehearsals that prepare the right mixture. Like the Impressionists before her, the artist does not use black from a tube but mixes it from the existing highly pigmented colours or creates its effect through coplementary effects. The stripe paintings are often combined with landscape sketches and nature portraits. This combinatory contrast between abstract and representational painting clearly shows her field of investigation, in that physical nature, i.e. representationality, points to the inherent radiance of the colours and their effect.

Schmusen mit Papier-All You Need Is Lost

Das Kunstbuch von Manfred Kirschner erscheint im September 2021

Bestellungen auch über die Galerie Crystal Ball

Schmusen mit Papier – All You Need Is Lost by Manfred Kirschner will be published in September.
A total of 35 handmade photo collages are combined with prose to create an associative reading experience.
Schmusen mit Papier is set in Bremerhaven and links its history with contemporary snapshots of the seaside city. Ytong, the narrator, is supposed to double his friend Harald Baumeister, at an art exhibition in the harbour area of the city. After he has finished setting up the art exhibition, Ytong lets himself drift and, along with many new friends, meets the young, mute “Goethe”, who describes to him in letters a gay love story from 1860 about the emigrant Nicolaus and his lover Matthias.
Schmusen mit Papier deals not only with an absurdly funny description of the art business, exclusion and loss in systemic capitalism, but also with the power of human communication, friendship and solidarity. In the process, the text works with apparent doppelgängers and duplications. In a warm tone, he draws his figures who, connected to each other, make it clear that in personal striving a universal can be recognised which, if we can recognise it in other people, makes us equal and human.

The book is the third part of a collage story for the realisation of which Kirschner received a grant from the Dieckell Foundation and funds from the Bremerhaven Cultural Office. It will be published on 4 September to coincide with the opening of Manfred Kirschner’s exhibition “Goethe was here!” at Galerie Goethe45.

Andreas Kotulla – Colours for Ships

exhibition and book launch, Sa. 14. August um 17 Uhr

Sa. 14. , Su. 15, Mo. 16. August: from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and by appointment

Andreas Kotulla: Colours For Ships, Buch; Siebdruckcover/ Malerei, Auflage 30, Berlin 2021

Andreas Kotulla is showing his eponymous installation and the art book based on it at the gallery this weekend. We are pleased to present Colours For Ships, the edition of handmade books completed in June 2021. Each page is hand painted by the artist. The black and white book cover, also handmade by the artist, is a screen print. The extremely time-consuming, loving design sets a subtle, pleasurable contrast to industrial book productions. In contrast, the book has a special, beautiful feel. The concept of Colours For Ships, with its strong idiosyncrasy and its sensitive humour, makes it an important book. Attention.

Colours for Ships, handmade book, 19 pages, silkscreen/ painting, Andreas Kotulla 2021, edition of 30, numbered and signed for 120,- Special price/ valid only for the opening; 100,-

Colours for ships –
or perhaps even for containers.
Or any other object that needs to be painted.
Sometimes paint colour is determined by technical processes, by its manufacture or intended
use (e. g. anticorrosive paints made with red lead or tin chromate).
When this is the case, the colour becomes an attribute of an object rather than the surface
design.
Colour can naturally also be used to differentiate between similar objects.

Andreas Kotulla

Crystal Ball Book Salon

Origin artist books and performances
From April to June 2021

The exhibition is on, you can visit the Book Salon according to the actual Covid 19 pandemic regultations for Berlin. Please contact us for an appointment!

The GCB Book Salon – Collage von Lydia Karstadt, 2021

The Crystal Ball Book Salon features original book art, artists’ books and performances. The salon has a fireplace, a carpet and comfortable seating on which you can rest in a pleasant atmosphere and look at the artistically designed books. You can visit the salon individually or by household, according to the currently valid hygiene rules. Here on our website we´ll show you the performances of the participating performance artists recorded in the salon.

im Avignon, Julia Appelt, Marion Bösen, Herve Cabin,
Françoise Cactus, Claudia Christoffel, Stefan Demming,
Roland Eckelt, Evita Emersleben, Gabi Garland, Elke Graalfs,
Marco Goldenstein, Henrik Jacob, Manfred Kirschner, Andreas Kotulla,
Miriam Jadischke, Lydia Karstadt, Patricia Lippert, Julia Neuenhausen, Sigrun Paulsen,
Wolfgang Müller/ Ogar Grafe, Monika Müller-Kroll, Ulrike Kötz,
Isolde Loock, Javier Lozano, Namosh, Pia E. van Nuland, Sigrun Paulsen,
Magnús Pálsson, Gabriele Regiert, Inken Reinert,
Stefan Ruf, Berit Schneider, Frank Schoppmeier,
Bea Schlingelhoff, Veronika Schumacher, Kathrin Schädlich,
Michael Schädlich, Peter Schneckenberg, Spunk Seipel, Annette Stemmann,
Streichelwurst, Rolf Thiele, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Tamara Trölsch,
Treuka, Robert Urban, Oliver Voigt, Heike Walter,
Sabine Wewer, Daniel Wolter and further artists.

Special Gallery Weekend, May ’21

With his song “Bücher lieben dich!” Frank Schoppmeier brings meaningfulness to the book salon, followed by Caren Sielaff, who warns in her song “Datenhintertür” of the dangers of increasing digitalization. Two specials for the Gallery Weekend, May 2021.

Performances #1

On Friday 28 May, Lydia Karstadt, Caren Sielaff and Frank Schoppmeier will perform in front of the gallery:

Performance-Programm am 28.05.21 von 16 bis 20Uhr

Book presentation & reading by Manfred Kirschner: “Going crazy in East Germany / Rügen mon Amour”.

Caren Sielaff with her new song: “Berlin Online

and Degustazione-Special: We will open some natural wines from our friends from the Sette Aje in Sicily for you to taste.

Performance #2 Books alone at home!

The book salon has been fully set up for a few days now, but since it seems hardly practical for visitors to embark on a voyage of discovery here at the moment, the books are taking on a life of their own ……

Stefan Ruf, 360° Buch Salon, books allone at home

The works Lydia Karstadt has collected in her book Salon are no hot potatoes – but the matter must nevertheless be approached with a little courage. Tackling and opening up requires more than just a brief overview that exposes the works at a calculable distance. Approach with initiative. Ah, here is a stack of photo books. What’s in this box? Unboxing Streichelwurst. Underneath, Unboxing Latin Lovers… Funny, it’s not what I expected at all … ah … Latin for Lovers – that’s what the second reading says … Time slips away, new systems of order emerge and disintegrate. At the end, stretched out on the chaise longue – the flames in the fireplace give a cosy atmosphere …. To be continued.

“Going Crazy in East Germany – Rügen mon Amour” by Manfred Kirschner

On March 31, 2021, the Berlin publishing house Art in Flow will publish a collage story by Manfred Kirschner as a printed art book.

From the press release:

Artist book/new release

Manfred Kirschner: Going Crazy in East Germany – Rügen, Mon Amour

What are old-fashioned photo albums other than testimonial picture books, which tell stories about a chronological collection of photographs or allow associations to be made. Being aware of this from the very beginning of his work the artist Manfred Kirschner used these albums to create life stories and histories of his protagonists: The fictitious life story of an American artist in the 1960s or short photo stories in which collages are placed instead of album photos and represent them. Once one has accepted this surreal change, one is quickly immersed in the logic of a parallel sphere, a fantastic imaginary life story that wrestles with reality, from a time when photography still surrounded the aura of the authenticity.
It was precisely in the early 1990s, with the onset of digitization and the reversibility of the processes, Kirschner began his serial collage stories and photo albums.
Now he has presented a first printed volume. His two-part collage story so far. “Going Crazy in East Germany – Rügen mon Amour” recounts in a light, humorous tone the turbulent travel adventure of Harald Baumeister, a Berlin-based
artist who, disappointed by his friends, travels to the Baltic Sea in search of meaning. The book is based on collaged landscapes that function like “film sets” for the artist. Through his technique, Kirschner associates a fantastic German
pictorial history in which fiction, the past and the present merge. The genre of narrative humorously illustrates a reflection of life. The protagonist Harald Baumeister appears like an alter ego of artists in crisis. An inner and outer
journey that should lead him to art and ends in life. With hallucinations and and lovesickness, he gets lost in an ironic conundrum of identities around a magical snow globe and in the end surprisingly finds friendship and love.

The artist’s book will be published as part of the Crystal Ball Book Salon, April through June 2021, at the
Crystal Ball Gallery.

More information about the book: https://www.artinflow.de/manfred-kirschner/
Manfred Kirschner: Verrückt Werden in Ostdeutschland – Rügen, Mon Amour
Hardcover/Leinenbezug, 130 S., 16 x 16 cm, Dt., 30,00 EUR
ISBN 978-3-938457-51
or ask directly in the Crystal Ball Gallery.

Collage D´Automne Discothèque

For entrance please look for the “Open” flag at the door or call us spontaneously from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tel: 030 60052 828

Dieses Bild hat ein leeres Alt-Attribut. Der Dateiname ist M107_150x150cm_2020.jpg — M 107, Papier/ Acryl auf Leinwand, 160 x 150 cm, 2020

Lydia Karstadt curates for the second shutdown and the end of the year, a lonesome 1-person discotheque adapted to the circumstances – In one installation, the large-format collages handmade this year on canvas by Manfred Kirschner, curator Karstadt puts records on the individual visitors’ request. The access functions individually according to the slogan and strictly follows the current pandemic protection rules. In addition to the new large works, there is a small SALE series, which the gallery helps to buy, since 100% of the sales proceeds go to Crystal Ball.

Collage D´Automne Discothèque – Tiny Planet

Manfred Kirschner’s new semi-abstract series plays more with colors and geometric forms and deals with the loss and emptiness, the absence of physicality. His protagonists; people, mannequins, who actually usually appear on canvases and books in Kirschners collage sets, stories and as in stage sets populating his works, seem to have disappeared in favor of a painterly, aesthetic language of forms. As it turns out, however, man is not completely forgotten, on the contrary. “I am landscape – put me in” is the title of one of the great works in which beautifully shaped empty spaces open up for insertion. The title functions like a manual for the overall installation of the exhibition, inviting visitors to amuse themselves and to fit into the exhibition context. The artist’s collage photo novels, which he often sticks in photo albums or watercolor books, are also a secret tip. But to do so, one must follow Kirschner deeper into his fantasy and wonder worlds, perhaps like Alice, as she follows the forthoppelden rabbit into the dark hole, into an unknown sphere. For a visit to the exhibition, please look for the “Open” flag at the door or call us spontaneously from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Evita Emersleben: Kussmunddrucke

Performance/ video/ lipstick prints
Fr. 4 September at 7 p.m., opening with performance
Sat. 12 Sept. at 5 pm Performance for the Art Week: Kissing Monster- Evita Emersleben

Evita Emersleben, Untiteled, Alterra: Classice Red/ Papier, ca 60 x 80cm, 2020

Evita Emersleben shows her performative art here once again in a conceptual context that gives rise to a new series of works. She kisses the drawing paper and thus „prints“ in a processual performance, portraits and pictures with her mouth. In complex work performances, the artist has already had the works of art themselves cast, moulded, cut up, served and eaten. Her most recent performance was as a meat saleswoman, selling her works in portions by the gram. The artist Evita Emersleben works on a holistic form of her works in that the products, the interventions or the actions are always an equal part of the artistic practice. The work action: kisses set sensitively and accurately, which build up her prints, is therefore just as important as the artifacts themselves. If we understand the paper, the canvas or the painting grounds as the classical medium of the artists*, Emersleben plays with a universal, the desire for artistic affirmation in this amusing series of works. But the gestural phatos of the production of the lipstick pictures, together with an almost absurd motivation, creates a wonderfully serious and ridiculous ambivalence that touches us in our own living context.

Kussmundmonster – die Ausstellung als Tiny Planet

Evita Emersleben showed her performance twice during artweek. Due to the applicable hygiene regulations, visitors* were only able to follow the events through the shop window. Each performance lasted about one hour.

Evita Emersleben – Performance/ Kussmunddrucke, Crystal Ball, 2020

upper-left: streetview, upper-middle: visitor wears costume with lipstickprints, by accident, upper-right: setting of the performance
bottom-left: Evita Emersleben, bottom-middle: portrait – result of the performance , bottom-right: artweek-visitors

The exhibition is kindly supported
by the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation.

Fuck Your Selfie! #6 – Portraitsalon

F*** Your Selfie #6 Portraitsalon
25 to 28 August 2020 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

FYS Numero Sei, Galerie Crystal Ball, Berlin 2020

Forget your selfie and exchange it for a real portrait situation, a happening and choose a style that suits you from the oeuvre of the artist team. Let yourself be drawn in a classical way or be presented as a collage, in poetry, as an art song, as a watercolour or even as a cat litter sculpture. This year, the legendary Crystal Ball portrait salon festival will take place for the sixth time! from 25 to 28 August. With some exclusive stars and artists performing and portraying all visitors. As always, it is also possible for other artists* to participate. Already announced have been: Meike Doelp, Elke Graalfs, Mareike Hube, Carola Humboldt, Lydia Karstadt, Andreas Kotulla, Bibi Kreuzberg, Annett Lau, Mini Mo, Rias, Stefan Ruf, Berit Schneider, Caren Sielaff, Veronika Schumacher, Oliver Voigt and others.

Gabriele Regiert – Plan B

The exhibition of Gabriele Regiert is open to individual visitors during the usual opening hours from Friday 8 May.
Finissage: 16 August, 5 p.m.

The exhibition is open to the public again. You can now visit the gallery again during the usual opening hours. In view of the Corona Pandemic we have also published a 360 degree panorama including an interview with the artist.

Gabriele Regiert, Plan B, ca. 320 x 350 cm, Installation/ Detail, 2020

Plan B, Gabriele Regiert on her tiny planet

In the exhibition Plan B, Gabriele Regiert shows her installation of the same name, a large tableau of assembled drawings and canvases. Each work, and drawing stands on its own, but its own presence adds up to an overall effect. Gabriele Regiert’s drawings are processes; their sequence of events, her work that wants nothing but her actions, is her motif. In this way, very free, highly aesthetic sheets are created which do not want but become art. In Plan B., the sheets are hung on top of each other and partly on top of each other like emergency seats, parts of the picture disappear or appear to be brought together in an uncontrolled way. It is precisely this strategy of an unusual, succinct treatment that effectively produces the emanation of the pictures and is exemplary for the artist as an artistic attitude. Gabriele Regiert quotes and touches on visual universals such as in this case note boards, pinboards or the case collections known from crime novels – collections that resonate in this aesthetic. The interplay opens up to meaning – unexpected associations – it is about the moment. The artist keeps her drawings open. The handling of the unfinished, an unconscious drawing action whose lines are always on the way, whose patterns look for themselves elsewhere and are more committed to the tea stain than to a concrete goal, reinforce her present presence. The installation is always temporary in this way of working. When hung again, the presentation resembled a re-enactment rather than a precise repetition.
The working process is dynamic, the artistic products almost performative, lively in their creative context, not fixed. Some would certainly have disappeared because they continued working or became material again in the artist’s fund. This way of working is very committed to life, it democratizes the works among themselves and works on a new innovative attitude. Gabriele Regiert’s work contains a processual, superordinate understanding and thus shows that art is immediate liveliness.

On the occasion of the exhibition the edition „Pret A Manger“, framed, 18 x 12 x 5 cm, edition of 15, each 120,-

Pret A Manger 2/15 – Gabriele Regiert, Edition #1, framed/ signed, 120,- Crystal Ball, 2020

Pia E. van Nuland – A Second Moon

Vernissage on Sa. 8 February 2020 at 7 p.m., extended until Sa. 14 March 2020
Look out! Due to the pandemic, the finissage on 14 March will be cancelled

Pia E. van Nuland, Main Street,
-SLC- USA, 120 x 160 cm, multicoloured linoleum print on canvas, 2020

In February and March, the gallery will show new works by Pia E. van Nuland, some of which she realized during her fellowship abroad in Salt Lake City, USA. Pia E. van Nuland’s linocuts masterfully expand the printmaking boundaries of the medium. The artist likes to work with special colors and color mixtures to achieve special, opaque and painterly effects. Size formats, conception and sensitivity of the cut, go far beyond illustrative attributes in the prints. The motifs, the image detail, the choice of colours are combined in Van Nuland’s works in a high virtuosity, so that the artist can take a special position. Pia E. van Nuland often works in thematic series, with multi-coloured large formats, whose individual pictures are unique in quality and expressiveness. The exhibition shows for the first time in Berlin, an overview and multi-coloured linoleum prints on canvas.