WE'VE BEEN HIDING TOO LONG

David Achenbach and Anna Hagemeier are proud to jointly open their new exhibition space, David Achenbach Projects, for the first time with the exhibition WE’VE BEEN HIDING TOO LONG. Following the successful launch of the David Achenbach Projects series in Düsseldorf in 2014, an innovative space for artistic exchange has now been created in the Bergisches Land region – specifically, in Wuppertal – which will host several solo and group exhibitions in the course of each year. Looking for something special for their projects, Achenbach and Hagemeier – who has been working with Achenbach since 2015 and co-founded David Achenbach Projects – have chosen premises in a generously proportioned older building with expansive grounds. This means that they can for the first time exhibit not only paintings, photographs and installations but outdoor sculptures as well. It was therefore not a difficult decision for the two Düsseldorf-born founders to relocate to Bergisches Land to make space for creative ideas and projects.
For this second exhibition, David Achenbach Projects is showing work by thirteen artists. Spread across two storeys and an outside area, the show ranges from established entities in contemporary art to young emerging artists. A look at the list of artists reveals what the organisers and their project are aiming at. As Achenbach and Hagemeier put it, “We first and foremost show work that we get excited about personally and that is being talked about internationally. The idea is to enable fruitful exchange to develop among artists, gallery owners, collectors and art lovers of various generations. Making a difference, after all, is a joint endeavour.”
THE ARTISTS
Norwegian artist Kenneth Alme (1981) plays with materials and their functions, working with thinned oil paints on raw and as yet unstretched canvases in what is a delicate creative process. He allows the paint and the material room to change, which generates an exciting process in which the outcomes can never be completely controlled. His work will be on display at the Rod Barton gallery in Brussels this autumn.
Pieces by Jens Einhorn (1980), a member of Tal R’s master class, generate an impression of urbane fragmentation. Einhorn has recently developed a technique for his works that draws on textures and fabric collages while at the same time hinting at the forceful strokes with which they are formed. The Italian post-war movement Arte Povera might also have provided inspiration for the artist’s latest pieces, in which he blends the most varied of everyday objects into the canvas. In 2015, he showcased his work in a solo exhibition at DUVE Berlin.
Painter Max Frintrop (1982) graduated from the master class of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2009. His work is typified by engagement with the spatial effect of painting brought to life by the immediacy of the painterly line during its realisation with an oversized brush and by precise colour choice. He will be showing a solo exhibition at the Lyles & King gallery in New York in May 2016.

Luc Fuller (1989) uses his art to explore cultural connections, the mingling of subcultures and high culture, and the semantic links between symbols, arrangements and exhibition formalities. He questions the traditional issues of installation, materiality and space by democratising the relationship between the image and the observer. Most recently, his work was shown by Rod Barton in a solo show at the latter’s Brussels gallery in early 2016.
The work of Manor Grunewald (1985) is concerned with the image in the era of digitisation. His pieces reside on the border between graphic printing and manual painting. It is ultimately impossible to distinguish between print elements and the artist’s gestures, and a completely new, self-contained composition is the result. Concurrently with the exhibition at David Achenbach Projects, other pieces by Grunewald can be seen in a solo show at the Berthold Pott gallery in Cologne.
New York-based artist Chris Hood (1984) starts work on the back of his canvases, selectively placing the cartoons typical of his 'back-to-front paintings'. He then generously applies oil paint thinned to varying degrees over the top of his cartoon characters; the colours soak through the canvas and appear on the other side. His pieces are meeting points of control and chaos, tradition and innovation. In 2016, his work is on display in a solo exhibition at the MIER gallery in Los Angeles.
Photographer Talisa Lallai (1989) is one of the youngest artists in the show. It was only in February this year that she left the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Rebecca Warren's master class there, and she has already presented a major solo exhibition, at the BolteLang gallery in Zurich in 2015. Her photographs have a calming, almost meditative effect and speak of an indefinable yearning with their extremely aesthetic depiction of nostalgic motifs and Mediterranean landscapes.
Tiziano Martini (1983) initially covers his wet paint with plastic foil. Once it is dry, he then tears parts of the foil off again. He breaks with the continuity of the creative act by experimenting with techniques and materials in the multiple stages of his process. This lends his pieces additional texture and depth which is entirely divorced from the realms of what can be planned. Martini’s current exhibitions include a show at Studio La Cittá in Verona.
The work of Polish-born sculptor Peter Müller (1981), formerly of Tony Cragg’s master class at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, escapes the familiar interpretations of sculpture and imbues objects and materials with fresh aesthetic appeal. Several pieces of his were recently shown in a solo exhibition at the Ampersand gallery in Cologne.
Using a distinctive technique he developed himself, the internationally renowned Angel Otero (1981) of Puerto Rico create works of art that have a substantial presence. He is exhibiting his work at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston in 2016.
The new series that Iris Touliatou (1981) is working with in 2016 – sculptures created from synthetic materials, liquids and resins, as well as a set of drawings etched into white rubber with a laser – explores new journeys and meanings in the human character and the development of identities. Her exhibitions in 2016 include a show at the Onassis foundation in Athens.
Of the German participants in the show, Tobias Rehberger (1966) and Michael Riedel (1972) can look back on the longest artistic careers. Rehberger, a sculptor and professor of the Städelschule art academy in Frankfurt, walks an interesting line straddling the spheres of design and art. A number of his pieces are on display at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in 2016.
Michael Riedel learned his craft under Hermann Nitsch, also at the Städelschule. Drawing on pre-existing objects, making them his own and repeating them to create a second image of them, Riedel produces a kind of appropriation art. He currently has a solo exhibition at the David Zwirner gallery in New York and will be showing his art at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt and the Kunsthalle gallery in Zürich in the course of 2017, also in solo exhibitions.