ART CITIES: Cologne -Heimo Zobernig

Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-128), Galerie Nagel Draxler ArchiveHeimo Zobernig has achieved wide recognition for his sculptures, paintings, videos and performances. With works that respond to the legacy of the discourses and themes of Formalist, Abstract and Minimalist Art, he is an important representative of the artists associated with “Kontext Kunst” in the German-speaking art scene of the ‘90s.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive

Heimo’s Zobernig practice is defined by a calculated balance that playfully calls into question form and function, as well as the presentation and staging of art. He appropriates various art histories in order to question the ideological position and conditions which underpin them, subverting and reinterpreting them with a lightness of touch and an economy of material, means and methodology that is at turns playful, dry, witty, unsettling and disarming. In his new exhibition at the Galerie Nagel Draxler in Cologne, Heimo Zobernig presents new paintings composed of layers of paint with different solubility, oil and acrylic, resulting in a pearling or flaking or craquelure effect. Being explored in the multicoloured works, Zobernig achieves perfection of this effect in the monochromes. The paintings are more about surface than about colour. Zobernig’s most ambitious works have always been either white or black. The latter actually forming his ideal (following the tradition of artists like Robert Ryman or Ad Reinhardt for example). The colours Orange and brown are of similar importance in Zobernig’s oeuvre, although or because often regarded as “No-painting!” colours

Info: Galerie Nagel Draxler, Bismarckstraße 50, Cologne, Duration: 23/2-12/3/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-16:00, http://nagel-draxler.de

Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-114), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive
Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-114), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive

 

 

Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-119), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive
Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-119), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive

 

 

Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-120), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive
Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-120), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive

 

 

Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-121), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive
Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2015 (HZ 2015-121), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive

 

 

Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2016 (HZ 2016-004), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive
Heimo Zobernig, ohne Titel, 2016 (HZ 2016-004), Galerie Nagel Draxler Archive