where I end and you begin

Ina Gerken, Gabriele Herzog, Anke Weyer, Jongsuk Yoon

Inspired by the Radiohead song “Where I End and you Begin” that talks itself about personal boundaries and the difficulties that we may could find into establishing such lines, the current group exhibition presents a new selection of artworks that investigate through an abstract lens the human being and its role within the social or the natural habitat. 

The aim of the exhibition where I end and you begin is to present a younger generation of painters who are exploring the possibilities of abstract painting today and transferring tradition from its conventional past into a fresh, vibrant present. Common to all four artists Ina Gerken, Gabriele Herzog, Anke Weyer and Jongsuk Yoon is the reference to life, nature and time, with the artists acting as catalysts for the search for what is essential and alive, the collective memory and our interconnectedness with the world around us. By abstracting different states of consciousness into a visual, spatial experience, the artists collectively engage with human experiences and desires, investigating into the relationship between one’s surroundings and selfhood. They explore our reliance on nature as well as the fundamental understanding that nature is infinitely larger than any individual life and how it underpins our very own existence.

Ina Gerken 

*1987 in Dusseldorf, lives and works in Dusseldorf. 

Dancing back and forth between form and surface, Ina Gerken is developing an indissoluble body of work that is surprising and unique in its artistic nonconformity. Emerging amid the gestural scribbles and layerings are streaks, tangles, grids, structures, patterns, waves, clouds, stripes, fans, and much more… Natural chaos or chaotic nature in all its inimitable beauty, Gerken’s painting are a glimpse into the essence of things and world with no clear up or down. (Gregor Jansen, 2022). 

Ina Gerken received her BA from the Kunsthochschule Mainz and her MA from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Gabriele Herzog

*1965 in Basel, lives and works in Berlin.

Gabriele Herzog’s amorphous and organic paintings depict the harmonious balance between opposing elements and energies. The relationship between positive and negative space is explored through the contrast of subtle and bold application of paint creating elements of intense, dynamism and areas of quiet, peace and neutrality. Her focus is line and color, always using raw untreated canvas to express only the essential. The works, which appear reduced at first glance, reflect complex visual perceptions, and create layers that oscillate between figuration and abstraction.

Gabriele Herzog received her BA from Schule für Gestaltung Basel, Switzerland, her MA from the University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts, UK and her Postgraduate Dip from Central School of Art London, UK.

Anke Weyer

*1974 in Karlsruhe, lives and works in New York.

Anke Weyer’s abstract paintings act like mirrors reflecting the physical act of painting, with expressive, colorful gestures suggesting the artist’s scale and body. Weyer’s relationship to the natural world presents a unique set of trials and advantages, from weather’s consequences on the body and its effect on her materials, to her liberating ability to cast her paints freely about, the ever-shifting quality of natural light, and a more expansive sense of scale. 

Anke Weyer attended the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and undertook an exchange semester at the Cooper Union, New York.

Jongsuk Yoon

*1965 in Korea, lives and works in Düsseldorf.

In Jongsuk Yoon’s work, traces of condensed temporality, corporeality, memory, and biography intersect and result in idiosyncratic pictorial worlds that display an impressive range of colors. Although Yoon’s color palette reveals a broad range, she only rarely uses black, white, or red, and when she does, they serve as accents or strong gestures. The paintings are structured by formal elements and layers of paint applied precisely on top of and next to each other, their deliberate arrangement evoking narratives and traces of implied landscape elements. 

Jongsuk Yoon first studied at the Kunstakademie in Münster, later she was a student at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. Eventually, she received her MA from the Chelsea College of Art in London.