Dr. Marc Cremer-Thursby (art critic and art historian) speaks about the exhibition NATURE-BODY-FORM (30.10. – 25.11.2021) at Pashmin Art Gallery, Hamburg branch.

Nature versus culture is used to describe the power of nature versus the power of man/culture. Usually, culture is considered to be more powerful but we should not forget the interaction between the two. Apart from the cultural aspect man’s influence on nature, we should not forget the influence of human body on his thinking. Without human body we cannot understand fully or in part the gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and other identities. Many artists use body to make their creative activities. And when we look at human body carefully, the significance of form cannot be ignored. In art, “form” has two meanings: it might refer to the whole form of work or to the element that make the work.

In this exhibition reviews the relationship between Nature, Body and Form in the works of Heike Pohl and Vasco de Oliveira.

Heike Pohl, who was born in the Swiss capital Bern is an international freelance active artist. She experiments with figurative and abstract elements, in painting and in glass art. Her figurative works are mainly concerned with philosophical thoughts and the search for the essence of human experiences in everyday life. In her abstract art, it is her subconscious which is shown on the canvas. She describes the act of creation as a wholesome process, an inner reflection. The artist has not only a variable range of styles, but also a great interest in different materials, whereby she came to glass sculptural art.

Vasco de Oliveira is a Portuguese artist who lives in Hamburg, Germany. At the young age of 14 the artist was allowed to exhibit his works in the Altona Museum as part of a group exhibition. The initial hobby painting passion quickly turned into professional commissioned works for well-known brands such as The Body Shop or Casio. In the town hall of Porto (V.N. Portugal) a 3-meter-high wall painting by de Oliveira can be admired.

In the paintings created by Vasco de Oliveira, we see naturalistic old drawings to modern abstract works, formalistic and non-representational abstraction. Figures raise out of abstract forms and enchant the viewers. His compositions remind us of what Kandinsky wrote in, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” about multiple lines which interact on the basic plane to produce a composition: “A composition is nothing other than an exact law-abiding organization of the vital forces which, in the form of tensions, are shut up within the elements…. Colours on the painter’s palette evoke a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eye which is charmed by the beauty of colours, similar to the joyful impression when we eat a delicacy. This effect can be much deeper, however, causing a vibration of the soul or an “inner resonance”—a spiritual effect in which the colour touches the soul itself.”

This is what we encounter in his art.

Pashmin Art gallery invites the art-lovers to this exhibition.

https://pashminart-gallery.com/