Wim Botha – Nothing is as it seems

Cape Town. The Heliostat exhibition at the Norval Foundation had impressed me so much that I wanted to meet the artist personally. Here, Wim Botha's work, which regularly attracts attention also at international exhibitions, was showcased in a huge solo show. I am very excited when I drive to Kommetjie to visit the artist in his studio . . .
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Johanna Keimeyer – Multimedia self-awareness

Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg. Oderberger Straße municipal swimming pool. This is the place where Johanna Keimeyer staged her spectacular dance performance, much talked about in the media, for the reopening of the renovated building. It is also the location where photographs of her series Pool Around, are installed throughout the entire complex. Here we start our tour through Berlin, a tour through the artist’s multimedia work . . .

Claus Richter – In front of the backdrop, behind the scenes …

Cologne, September 2018. How magical was the installation of his works at Art Cologne’s this year! I was fascinated by their playfully nostalgic, seemingly light-footed aesthetics; these figures, without exception, had awakened an almost childlike spirit of discovery in me. What was it about the devilish figures of the wall-work, holding the pendulum of the grandfather’s clock, grinning at me so provocatively? The wooden silhouette figures, on closer inspection, turned out to be anything but light-footed. Not only was a hand halted, but also time. A cut made for an end or a new beginning. Such interplay, disclosing profound stories against an apparently harmless backdrop, is typical of Claus Richter's art, as I will experience on my visit to the studio today ...

Matthias Wollgast – Genius Appropriation

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Markus Ambach – The city as a studio

Claudia Mann – The search for the origin of sculpture

Düsseldorf, 17 April 2018, Kunstgießerei Schmäke art foundry. Here I meet Claudia Mann, winner of the Düsseldorf Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst, a sponsorship for up-and-coming artists in the city. Her bronze casting "Solid Aero" is in its final stages. An unusual place to meet for a studio visit, given that at this stage the work of the artist is, in fact, mostly complete. Not so with Claudia Mann... I drive to the courtyard and witness the patination of a sculpture by Markus Lüpertz. I observe the process together with Claudia Mann, and am surprised by the speed at which the chemical process makes the bronze change its colour. "I absolutely had to get a look at this. I'm still gathering my options, you see, and want to understand the extent to which it's possible to leave the pure cast skin", she tells me, and we are abruptly in the middle of the topic at hand. "

Jürgen Klauke – From an observer to someone being affected or – What does my taste in art reveal about myself?

Cologne, 15th March 2018. A former warehouse painted with graffiti. How fitting is what I think when arriving. This is exactly how I imagined Jürgen Klauke's studio. The building is as unconventional as his art. He has been setting standards in the development of conceptual photography, body art and performance since the late 1960s. His oeuvre also includes an impressive collection of drawings. The series DR. MÜLLERS SEX-SHOP ODER SO STELL’ ICH MIR DIE LIEBE VOR gave me an initial impulse to examine his work. I have hardly ever experienced such discussions on art. Reactions varying from attraction to repulsion to shaking one's head or commenting "Oh! It's pretty weird. He must have taken a lot of drugs" to questioning whether I would hang up something like that at home.
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Close-up and total_­­­Katharina Sieverding

Düsseldorf-Pempelfort, February 26, 2018. I have an appointment with Katharina Sieverding today in her showroom, which is located not far from her studio in a classic brick building. The building is used as a depot and presentation area for her works as well as a meeting place for her public relations work. We enter the building together, carefully weaving past the work leaning against the wall and then find ourselves in the beautifully designed staircase. Some of her famous self-portraits can be seen here. The showroom itself embodies what Katharina Sieverding describes as room art. The gigantic large formats awaken an effect like a cinematic canvas and almost suck the viewer into them. The subtitles that are typical of cinema are also present here, not underneath, but right in the middle of the picture.
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