15.09. – 21.12.2022

Junge Künstler:innen an der Europäischen Rechtsakademie zur Feier ihres 30-jährigen Bestehens

Anlässlich des 30-jährigen Bestehens der Europäischen Rechtsakademie (ERA) in Trier wurden sechs junge Künstler aus Deutschland, Frankreich und Luxemburg eingeladen, ihre aktuellen Arbeiten zu präsentieren.

Zu sehen sind Gemälde, Skulpturen, Fotografien und Videoarbeiten von Alix Desaubliaux, Luka Hair, Thierry Harpes, Katharina Jung, Luan Lamberty und Theresa Lawrenz. Diese aufstrebenden Künstler teilen nicht nur die Leidenschaft für zeitgenössische Kunst, sie sind auch alle um die 30 Jahre alt.

Die Ausstellung findet in der Europäischen Rechtsakademie statt und wird von der Kunsthalle Trier kuratiert.

 

Ausstellungsort:

Europäische Rechtsakademie (ERA)

Metzer Allee 4, 54295 Trier

 

Öffnungszeiten:

Montag-Donnerstag 9-17 Uhr, Freitag 9-16 Uhr

(Samstag und Sonntag geschlossen)

 

Die Ausstellung ist kostenfrei. Wir freuen uns über Ihren Besuch!

Alix Desaubliaux, Ice Golem and Cutekitten
Thierry Harpes, Bubble Gum Factory
Theresa Lawrenz, no brainer
Luka Hair, Jean-Yves
Katharina Jung, The Earth, She Holds Me II
Luan Lamberty, Ohne Titel

Alix Desaubliaux

Born in 1993, lives and works in Rennes, France
www.alixdesaubliaux.fr

Alix Desaubliaux, Ice Golem and Cutekitten
Alix Desaubliaux, Ice Golem and Cutekitten

As the image is buffering, the world is loading. We are transported into a foreign environment in which the colour of the grass is changing from pink to purple and green, greeted by a cute meowing white kitten. Antique columns are placed sporadically within this nature scape. The ice golem is roaming its territory. Slowly the realms of these two separate figures seem to lose their distinctive nature and start to collide. The figures are trapped within their repetitive narrative. They have to witness the crumbling of their realms, which becomes increasingly darker and abstracted. Ice Golem and Cutekitten 2016, is a video work by the French artist Alix Desaubliaux (*1993). In this particular work, Desaubliaux utilises two free and pre-created assets, Ice Golem and Cutekitten (NPC – non-player character), that are intended to be used freely to create video games. Here, they coexist in a world where no player intervenes. Trapped in the loop of their respective scripts, locked in a single action, they are forced to suffer the collapse of their universe, helplessly, waiting for the influence of a player who will never come. The world automatically recharges when its corruption reaches a critical level, trapping the two characters in an endless loop. The video is created using the Unity engine, which is envisioned as a film studio rather than a video game creation tool.

From 3-D printed ceramics and crystals to multimedia installations, films, video animations, and games, the French artist Alix Desaubliaux experiments with the fascinating cross-section of art and science. In parallel to her artistic practice, Desaubliaux conducts collective research with “3G”, in cooperation with Annie Abrahams, Pascale Barret and Alice Lenary, with whom she digitally explores performative and experimental formats. In the research group WMAN, composed of six artists and curators, her practice revolves around the theme of video games

Education
2017-2021: DSRA Research in Digital Art, ENSBA Lyon
2014-2016: DNSEP Option Art with Distinction, ENSAD Nancy
2011-2014: DNAP Option Art with Mention, ENSAD Nancy
2010-2011: Preparatory year option Animation, LISAA, Paris

Solo Exhibitions

2022 L’Autre Monstre, Réfectoire des Nonnes, Lyon
2019 Parcours d’artiste, Frac Lorraine, Metz
2018 Paidia, Galerie du Pavillon, dans le cadre de la Biennale Emergnce, Pantin
2017 Cybridations, Galerie du Pavillon, Pantin
2017 Ice-Golem & Cute-Kitten, Barcraft – The Achievement, Nancy
2017 Genese_paysage, Modulab, Metz
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Fréquence Monstre, Atelier Vivarium, Rennes
2021 Biennale Nova_XX, Cyberespace, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Paris
2021 Les langues de feux, commissariat collégial, Ateliers du Vent, Rennes
2021 Black screens issues, sleeping displays, commissariat Carin Klonowski, exposition collective Glassbox, Paris
2021 Projection vidéo, ParToutArtiste, Rennes
2020 Growing Our Networks in Uncertain Times/Places – HUB collective performance ft. WMAN, Our Networks
2020 Rearitings/Licritures 1, 2, 3 & 4, collective performance ft. 3G – Constallations, Open Publishing Fest
2020 Skuldur, Hotel Dieu, Rennes
2020 SELPHISH, commissariat Thierry Fournier & Pau Waelder, Mécènes du Sud, Montpellier
2020 Modus Tollens, Mirage Festival, Réfectoire des Nonnes, Lyon
2019 DropParty ft. WMAN, Runescape, Server Chaos
2019 XD,^_^,:3,:-D, collective performance avec Constallations, Magdalena, Montpellier
2019 Enter the dragon collective performance ft. WMAN, Second Life & Manylands

Luka Hair

Born in 1992, lives and works in Roubaix, France
www.lukahair.com

Luka Hair, Jean-Yves
Luka Hair, Même chez soi dans le noir on se cogne

Don’t judge a book by its cover – don’t judge a person by their appearance;
this seems to be the slogan that the paintings by Luka Hair (*1992) follow. In his creative practice, the French artist questions as much the idea of first perception as the tradition of portrait painting. It is often the first glance that dictates the initial interaction, followed by the thought that “they are different from what I expected”. But how can we form an expectation or a notion of who someone is purely based on appearances? What is it that reflects who we are? Is it really our face, our smile, our tears, or rather those objects that surround us, that we choose to have close to us? Standing in a gallery looking at a row full of faces staring back at you. It is only through attributes, clothes, jewellery, medals, and objects they hold that art historians can reconstruct the sitter’s social status, importance, or preferences. The mystery is often said to lie precisely in this ambiguity of identity: we perceive their face, even their depicted emotions, but who were they?

Luka Hair, however, does not seek to wrap his sitters in the veil of ambiguity, but creates insights into their innermost self through the medium of personal still life painting. What are your most treasured possessions? What can a library say about its reader, does a collection reflect the personality of the collector?

The full-frontal view into his sitters’ rooms, their kitchens, living rooms, offices, or bedrooms creates an intimate yet staged impression of their private sphere: we are looking in, examining the space, like the audience at a theatre performance. Contrary to the still life tradition, the scenes don’t necessarily show decay or reflect upon human condition as such, but rather seem to freeze a moment in time. They document a space as Hair reproduces the books, furniture, and décor in a sober, almost naïve manner. The muted colours point towards the symbolic value of the objects – just as Hair documents the interior spaces, he captures an aspect of his sitter’s personal values. The portrayed spaces become attributes, extensions, and objectification of personal identity.

Education
2017:
DNSEP Option Art with honors, Fine Arts ESBA-TALM, Le Mans
2015-2016: ERASMUS Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig
2014: DNAP Option Art with honours, Beaux-Arts ESBA-TALM, Le Mans

Solo Exhibitions
2021 The objects that embody us, Espace Pignon, Lille
2018 Collaboration Atelier Particuler, Pop-up rue des blancs manteaux, Paris
2017 Silence ça regarde, L’Ecrin, Chinon
2016 Clic Clic here it is, GAP GAP, Leipzig, D
Group Exhibitions
2022 Entre quatre yeux, La PPGM, Roubaix
2021 Tranche de vie, Le salon, Roubaix
2021 small is beautiful, Le Non lieux, Roubaix
2020 Biennale du CRAC, Maison Des Arts Plastiques, Champigny
2019 Histoires de famille, Galerie Zèbres, Paris
2018 Excellence of youth, Fleet House, Aldebourgh, GB
2018 Eleven positions in the woods, Galerie 9/10, Poznan, PL
2018 J’ai posé le monde sur la table, Beaux-Arts ESBA-TALM, Le Mans
2017 INDOOR 2, Galerie Abstract Project, Paris
2017 Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Parc Floral, Paris
2017 EN GARDE!, Beaux-Arts ESBA-TALM, Le Mans
2016 Excellence of youth, Great Thurlow, Suffolk, GB
2015 Let tem see, HGB, Leipzig, D

Thierry Harpes

Born in 1991, lives and works in Berlin and Luxembourg
www.thierryharpes.com

Thierry Harpes, Phoenix
Thierry Harpes, Bubble Gum Factory

Bold: that might be the word that describes the work by the Luxembourgish artist Thierry Harpes (*1991) most poignantly. From the colour choices to the brushwork and the treatment of the picture plane, Harpes’ visual language shouts rather than whispers. Yet, it is not a dissonate sound, somehow the colours bounce off each other, causing a stimulating vibration. The artist invites us to explore the image surface, to feel the texture of the paint, by celebrating the materiality of colour. The primed canvas houses layers of carefully placed fields of glossy and matt paint. The saturated surface allows the colours to fully develop their luminosity, creating a tangible colour density. It is this haptic approach to the medium which captures the viewer and calls them to delve into the picture plane and to feel the refreshing nature of his colour combinations.

Through the impact of the pandemic, the artist felt the need to rethink the role of confined spaces and rooms. Being limited to an enclosed space – just like paint is limited to its picture surface –it resides within the power of the mind to explore these boundaries without having to physically cross them. It is thus unsurprising that dreams are an important source of inspiration.

It is this link to the dream worlds and his daring use of colour combinations, as well as colour blocking and the use of shaped canvases, which suggest the artist’s potential affinity with past artistic movements, such as Hard-edge or colour field painting. Simultaneously, Harpes’ work seems to evoke something more organic and even symbolic, the provocative colour application of the Fauve movement. Indeed, Harpes’ abstracted figuration brings Henri Matisse to mind. His scissor cuts are reiterated in the Luxembourger’s cut-out canvases (It’s (a)rose, 2021) and filigree balustrades (Hidden Bird, 2022). The picture planes thus become multidimensional: the eye is led on a journey between bold colour panels and broad black brushwork. The play with dimensions is further explored in his plexiglas sculptures, where transparency and opaque colour transform the translucid medium into an enlivened structure. As such, the sun becomes an active agent: through its impact the hues change – flooding the whole structure, as well as the adjacent floor, with colour, creating a colourful patterned shadow: an inverted sculpture.

Thierry Harpes’ work is indeed bold, whilst linking visual traditions with an innovative take on colour, saturation, and transparency.

Education
2019-2021 Graduate of the University of the Arts in Berlin
(UDK Berlin) Meisterschüler of Prof. Mark Sadler
2014-2019 Fine arts at the University of the Arts,
Prof. Robert Lucander, Berlin
2013 lnternship (Artist Frank Pieperhoff), Berlin
2012 Young Artist Award Prize, Kulturschapp
2011 lnternship (Artist Patricia Lippert) Luxembourg
2007-2012 LTAM Luxembourg (section artistique)

Exhibitions
2022 Group Show Part II, curated by Julie Reuter and Lou Bausch,
2022 Reuter Bausch Art Gallery, Luxembourg
2022 lt’s only the end, curated by Philipp Lange and Klara Hülskamp, Kühlhaus Berlin, Berlin
2021 YLA, curated by Lou Phillips and Gerard Valerius, Valerius Gallery Warehouse, Luxembourg
2021 YLA, curated by Lou Phillips and Gerard Valerius, Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg
2020 Seif-Portraits, curated by Mark Sadler, University of the Arts, Berlin
2019 InKONTAKT, University of the Arts, Berlin
2019 lnCONTATTO, Palazzo Jules Maidoff, Florence
2019 Rundgang 19, University of the Arts, Berlin
2019 Atala (with Robert Lucander), Berlin
2019 Kerzen und Toilettenpapier, Berlin
2019 Jansen, solo-show, Berlin
2018 Welcome, Projektraum 145, lnvalidenstraße 145, Berlin
2018 Rundgang 18, University of the Arts, Berlin
2018 A burning giraffe, Berlin
2018 Gelb, curated by Joep van Liefland, Bar Babette, Berlin

Katharina Jung

Born in 1993, lives and works in Trier
www.katharinajung.photography

Katharina Jung, Retreat
Katharina Jung, The Earth, She Holds Me II

The body is one with nature. It is emerging from it, evolving with it, it becomes nature. In the lyrical photographs by the German artist Katharina Jung (*1993) the inspiration lies within life itself. Rather than questioning the unknown or mysterious, she fully embraces it in the hunt for serenity, calm, and ultimately inner peace. Her colour palette is muted. Using soft lighting, the edges of the figures blend into each other. Through the inclusion of veils and delicately draped translucent fabrics, the bodies are simultaneously covered and revealed. The nude body is celebrated in a poetic exposure of the skin.

In her quest toward self-understanding, her path has led Jung and her camera from Bali to NewZealand and the Azores. The freedom of both movement and spirit is essential to her creative process. As such, her images become an artful intersection between the moving body and enlivened nature, to create moments of stillness. It is precisely the body in motion and the curves it produces that have a hold on the artist. It is, therefore, not surprising that Jung works not only in photography but also in cinematography and dance. Knowing how to direct the models is crucial to capture the precise moment in which the model ceases to be an individual, a specific person, and becomes an entity, a body, a feeling.

As such, each photograph seems to evoke a film still, a vast narrative condensed to this one moment, frozen in time, in motion. The narrative is no longer tangible, all that is captured is its haunting beauty, an impression obscured by this loss of context. Personal reality transforms into a universal dream – an overarching veil that covers, wraps, and reveals different layers of perception. It is this calm, pensive, yet mystical nature of her work that produces a visual respite, a breather, as the nude bodies fuse with nature.

Education
2011-2014 Education as a media designer
since 2014 freelancing and travelling

Exhibitions
2014 DDA Factory, Cagliari, Italy
2014 Flickr: 20 Under 20, Milk Studios, New York
2015 Kunstpreis Robert Schuman, Stadtmuseum Simeonstift, Trier, Germany
2017 FIOF Fondo Internazionale per la Fotografia, Orvieto, Italy
2017 Kunstdorf Unterjesingen, Tübingen, Germany
2018 International Photo Expo Ethereal, Paris

Luan Lamberty

Born in 1988, lives and works in Luxembourg
www.luanlamberty.com

Luan Lamberty, Ohne Titel
Luan Lamberty, Grenzen (Filmstill)

The face is obscured, masked by a thick layer of paint. Who am I looking at? The anonymity of the figures by the Luxembourgish artist Luan Lamberty (*1988) only just wavers away from a point of depersonalisation. The figures are non-gendered, non-distinct, yet full of expression and anxiety. We can feel their pain, their solitude, or even their cry for help and their longing for understanding. This feeling of isolation radiating from the hidden faces is, however, not reflected in the artist’s colour palette. Bright blues, greens, and pinks create a light and inviting atmosphere, suggesting a hidden struggle, fighting with acceptance, and masking rather than an overt confrontation. The paintings might initially seem to have a closed composition, evoking an introverted gaze, but the table extends outside of the picture plane: are we, the viewer, also sitting at the table? Are we an active part of the conversation?

Gateways, openings, and invitations for an open conversation seem to be recurring topics in the work of Lamberty. In an interview, the artist explained that boundaries only become visible when confronted with gateways, as you can only know what you are lacking when you see the alternative. From literal openings, such as windows and doors, to digital gateways, i.e., phones and laptops, the paintings can be read on multiple levels of reception and interaction, from formal to symbolic. As such, the picture plane is opened up, so the narrative can flow out, flow over the viewer, redirect the normative narrative, the social hierarchy of the active viewer and the passive viewed, the male gaze and female model. The ground is levelled.

The animation videos incorporate many of the same topics, especially Grenzen [Boundaries] created in association with the Notruf Bremen (Psychological Counselling centre for victims of sexual violence). The simplified drawing of a figure narrates the problem of personal and social boundaries and the crossing thereof, their oppression, their neglect. Lamberty utilises the natural texture of the pencil and the blue crayon to enhance the message of the blurring of boundaries.

The minimalistic approach toward form and colour is thus pivotal to Luan Lamberty’s aesthetic as much as to the narrative: as the form is reduced to its baseline, the message is distilled to its essence, the call for an open conversation

Education
2013-2018 Diploma of Fine Arts at the University of Arts Bremen, Germany
2018-2019 Master-class student (Meisterschüler) of Prof. Heike Kati Barath
at the University of Arts Bremen, Germany

Group Exhibitions
2022 Queer Arts Festival as part of Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, Luxembourg
2022 The Shelf Show, Galerie in der Stadtscheune, Otterndorf, Germany
2022 Exhibition series Domestic Spaces, Fabricated Gallery by Shelby Edwards
2022 Ren-Art, Peppange, Luxembourg
2021 YLA-YOUNG LUXEMBOURGISH ARTISTS, Valerius Gallery, Luxembourg
2020 Stubenhocker: Post! Galerie Roy, Zülpich, Germany
2020 KunstRaum/ArtSpace, Alte Bürger, Bremerhaven, Germany
2019 eigentlich bin ich ganz anders, Galerie Roy, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst Zülpich, Germany
2019 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Weserburg Museum for modern Art Bremen, Germany
2018 Resonanzen, Worpsweder Kunsthalle, Haus im Schluh Worpswede, Germany 2018 Weiter, Diploma Exhibition, Gallery of Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Germany
2017 HABEN SIE SO ETWAS SCHON GESHEN?, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany
2017 FaceTime, Galerie Roy, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst Zülpich, Germany
2016 Nie Solo Sein – Sequenzen von Comic bis Trickfilm, Gallery of HfK Bremen, Germany
2016 Kunst und Werk Spezial, Sportgarten – Skater hall Bremen, Germany
2015 Blinddatepainting, von der Heydt Kunsthalle Wuppertal, Germany
2015 Kunst und Werk Spezial, Recyclincenter Becker und Brügesch Bremen, Germany
2015 Rahmensosse, Sommerloch Wuppertal, Germany
2014 Gästezimmer, Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Germany
2014 Mc Pomme, Kunstverein Schwerin, Germany
2014 Auf Wiedersehen – Jahrespräsentation, Kunstverein Schwerin, Germany

Theresa Lawrenz

Born in 1991, works in Mainz
www.theresalawrenz.de

Theresa Lawrenz, All For One
Theresa Lawrenz, no brainer

Concrete and steel are materials that are instinctively linked to building sites, heavy-duty work, and large-scale durable objects rather than fine art. Yet the sculptural aesthetic of the German artist Theresa Lawrenz (*1991) utilises precisely these construction materials. We encounter these substances every day, interact with them, and live in them, without spending too much time contemplating their texture, composition, or even function. A certain blindness for the mundane enrobes them. By creating architectural sculptures and installations inspired precisely by common imagery, Lawrenz seeks to lift this veil and reveal the potential they hold. No Brainer embodies this approach towards sculpture by playing with visual hierarchies, expectations, and function: the street sign – flat, white, and directional – becomes an obstacle. It no longer just directs the observer into the designated lane, it becomes an active agent, an object, or even a disruption. Are we meant to follow it? Is it official signage?

Formed out of custom-made sand cast concrete tiles, Lawrenz has transformed passive signage into an active sculpture with the power to lead, provoke, and question people’s readiness to obey.

Considering her material choices, it comes as no surprise that a key influence in Lawrenz’s artistic practice is architecture, from construction sites and exposed structures, to complete buildings. As such she often works site specifically or picks her exhibits inspired by the exhibition space itself. In the case of the Academy of European Law (ERA) – with its intriguing layout, architectural history, and exposed concrete walls – the artist mirrors its almost disjointed character in her work All For One. Initially created for Mainz Town Hall, Lawrenz selected this piece to reflect upon the architectural structure of the Academy, as the different buildings seem almost independent from each other, only connected through a long corridor, yet belonging together. In this work, abstract shapes made from concrete are attached to a long industrial chain. Each shape stands on its own, whilst being the negative of the adjacent. As such each element is only complete in association with the other.

Theresa Lawrenz’s work thus allows us to reconsider our urban environment and re-evaluate thatwhich is often overlooked by celebrating the style in the function.

Education
2019-2020
Post graduate student (Meisterschüler) Prof. Sabine Groß, Kunsthochschule Mainz
2017-2019 Studied fine arts under Prof. Sabine Groß, Kunsthochschule Mainz, master‘s degree (M. Ed.)
2012-2016 Studied philosophy and protestant theology at JGU Mainz, bachelor‘s degree (B. Ed.)

Prizes, Grants, and Scholarships
2022
August-Müller-Foundation Prize
2021 Young talent Pfalzpreis for sculpture
2021 Working grant, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2020 Emy-Röder-Prize: Advancement award of the Ministry of Science, Culture and Education, RLP and Kunstverein Ludwigshafen,
2020 Gutenberg-scholarship of the city Mainz
2019 Deutschland-scholarship for post graduate studies, Federal Ministry of Education and Research
2019 Art advancement award by friends of Mainz University e.V

Solo Exhibitions
2022 Emde Gallery, Mainz
2022 Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern
2019 Can you relate to me, Town hall of Mainz
2018 z.d.A. sculpture project, Jockel-Fuchs-Square, Mainz
2017 tell me who you are, art space Faulbrunnenstraße, Wiesbaden
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Einfädelspur, Zuostant, Berlin
2022 Katze im Sack, Project Space, Basis, Frankfurt
2022 stepping stone, gu11, Cologne
2022 130 km/h (duo show with Mathias Weinfurter), Bellevue-Saal, Wiesbaden
2022 Neu im BBK, BBK-Galerie, Mainz
2021 Pfalzpreis for fine art 2021 in the sculpture category, Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern
2021 Wir leben auf einem Stern, Kunsthalle Mainz