La Düsseldorf

Hidde van Seggelen Gallery is delighted to present La Düsseldorf. Selected by Thomas Grünfeld each of the artists in this group exhibition has previously studied under the acclaimed German artist’s tutelage at the Künstakademie Düsseldorf.

Russlan Daskalov, Roshni Grunenberg, Ko Ichikawa, Sarah Kürten, Ankica Marjanovic, Anna Mirbach, Theresa Reusch and Lukas Schmenger work in both varied style and media and are brought together here under the umbrella of ‘La Düsseldorf’. Whilst referencing the shared experience of each of the artists at a formative stage of their artistic practice, the exhibition also takes its title from the 1970’s German band of the same name.

There is a surreal element running through the exhibition, exemplified by Russlan Daskalov’s computer generated works. In one a naked woman, boldly constructed with scale like pink circles, strokes a goat with a bunch of flowers whilst drinking milk from a martini glass. Another depicts a similar subject holding a cucumber in the woods. Daskalov re-works a Renaissance style of painting typified by Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Whilst Botticelli elongated Venus’ neck and torso to emphasise her beauty, Daskalov forces his subjects through a digital process with an eye to creating grotesque and provocative imagery.

Theresa Reusch’s works Ruffian 2 and Ruffian 2 Betrayed continue in the theme of depicting the surreal. Adapting old and new techniques of image making, Reusch utilises drawing, collage, relief printing and computer based manipulation, before finally screen-printing the resulting scenes. Her works adopt the language of graphic novels, with constructed stage-sets and an implied narrative, as well as a set of characters that include the artist herself.