When hearing the description of how Ned Vena paints his paintings, it comes to one’s mind: battle of materiel. When seeing Ned Vena’s paintings, one faces: physicality and rawness transformed into elegance and depth, a repetition that alludes to the interesting version of infinity. When reading the words “labor” and “masculinity” in the comments about his paintings, one envies men for their kind of work. And certainly, the impact of the marriage “men and machine” (e.g. chainsaws and rain forests) can also been seen in the paintings. So: Cool – American – Minimalism – one thinks.
Born in the U.S.A. (Boston) in 1982, Ned Vena studied at the BFA Tufts University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Week 3 / Lecture (ger.) – Gerrit Gohlke
Is there anything Gerrit Gohlke cannot do? Probably, but we haven’t figured it out yet! Gerrit Gohlke works as an independent author and curator in Berlin and his publications show his love for precision, as well as his adoration for contemporary art and the medium “book” itself. His writings and curatorial works focus on the position of art in media society and the relation of art, technology and science – with a special interest in painting.
Since 2011 he is the Artistic Director of the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam. Recently he worked as lecturer with the Royal Academy in Stockholm KKH and other academies. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as an editor, editor-in-chief and executive director for artnet.com. Gerrit Gohlke was born in Helmstedt in 1968.
Week 3 / Lecture (engl./ger.) – Arno Brandlhuber
Berlin Heterogenity
Arno Brandlhuber the founder of brandlhuber+ Berlin and one of the most influential architects and theoretician in town. He holds the chair of architecture and urban research at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg and is directing the nomadic masters program a42.org. He is co-founder of the public seminar Akademie c/o, currently researching on the spatial production of the Berlin Republic with a focus on updating the 1977 developed concept “Das grüne Archipel – Die Stadt in der Stadt (city within the city)." Even though Arno once said: “I like the idea that a building site already knows what it wants to become“ - one might have to doubt that at least on first sight in case of the Brunnenstrasse 9, in Berlin Mitte. There the investor went bankrupt and left a ruinous construction site. Arno took over in 2006 and now one of the most appealing studio- and gallery buildings in town looks as if it was always supposed to be right there, right as it is. And so Arno might have be proven right after all. Arno was born in Wasserlos in 1964; he lives and thus works in Brunnenstrasse 9.
Trying to list even just a selection of his publications and exhibitions is way beyond the scope of this page. So please find all you’re looking for on: brandlhuber.com
Week 3 / Tour (engl./ger.) – Samuel Leuenberger
Samuel Leuenberger, born in 1974, is working as freelance curator and since 2009 runs the non-profit exhibition space SALTS since 2009, promoting young international artists. He has earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Sotheby's Institute in London in 1998. He has worked at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London from 1998–2001, and later worked as specialist specialist for contemporary art at Christie's Zürich. From 2004–2007 he was assistant to the curator at Kunsthalle Zürich and from 2007 onwards he worked as a Collections Advisor with a London based firm. Still, he knows Berlin maybe better than most of the Berliners! He has already collaborated with Autocenter on several curatorial projects. Within his own collection he focuses on new artistic developments in the fields of painting and sculpture and the boundary between the two media.
Samuel Leuenberger is planning a tour through a selection of Berlin galleries; providing insights into and exchange with an otherwise rather “closed-circuit-environment”.