Wolfgang Flad

Born 1974, lives and works in Berlin

Wolfgang Flad

Born 1974, lives and works in Berlin

SAMSUNG CSC

Curriculum Vitae

1974 Born
1995–2000 Fachhochschule Reutlingen, textile design
2000–2004 Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart, fine arts
Current Lives and works in Berlin

Grants and awards

Solo Exhibitions (selected)

2023 Solo Show, Jäger Art, Berlin / DE
Solo Show, Galerie Smudajeschek / München / DE
"Chromatic Universe", Kunstverein Bad Nauheim, Bad Nauheim / DE
"you should be there", Knoll.art, Biberach / DE
2022 "Resonanz", FS-art Bodensee, Tettnang / DE
"Tipping Point", Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart / DE
2021 "Three Rooms", Galerie FeldbuschWiesnerRudolph, Berlin / DE
"Die Ausbreitung von Licht", Emsdettener Kunstverein, Emsdetten / DE
"Vibrant Gravity", Van der Grinten Galerie, Köln / DE
2020 "The secret is not to give up", BCMA, Berlin / DE
"Everything flows", Bluerider Art, Taipeh / Taiwan
8 / GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal / DE
2019 The Dark Side of the Moon, Van der Grinten Galerie, Cologne / DE
display / Galerie Borchardt, Hamburg / DE
butterfly effect / Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart / DE
"display", Galerie Borchardt, Hamburg / DE
2018 somewhere in between / FeldbuschWiesnerRudolph Galerie, Berlin / DE
Kiss and tell, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa / USA - until December 2019
Collector's Club Van derGrinten Galerie, Cologne / DE
2017 arbeiten gegen die Schwerkraft, GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal / DE
Schrittweise Annäherung an ein Problem, Museum Bad Waldsee / DE
Wolfgang Flad / taborspot, Berlin
2016 Verlauf, FS.ART, Berlin / DE
2015 Next, Van der Grinten Galerie, Cologne / DE
replace a hand, Landhaus de Burlet, Berlin / DE
KNOLL.art. Oberhöfen / DE
Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm / DE
2014 Wolfgang Flad, Galerie am Klostersee, Kloster Lenin / DE
2013 Here to hear, GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal / DE
now, Van der Grinten Galerie, Cologne / DE
2012 Constellation, Bundesministerium der Justiz (Federal Ministry of Justice), Berlin / DE
2011 Sublimate, Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf / DE
Wolfgang Flad, DSM, Sittard / NL
2010 Coryllis erscheine, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart / DE
dispersion, art-lodge, Verditz / A
Reliefs und Skulpturen, KNOLL.art, Biberach / D
2009 Wolfgang Flad, Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf / D
Sculptures, Dollinger Art Project, Tel Aviv / IL
Sculptures, DSM Art-Corner, Heerlen / NL
2008 Tension, KNOLL.art, Oberhöfen / DE
Play, Aschenbach & Hofland, Amsterdam / NL
2007 Mamiko Otsubo (cuts) & Wolfgang Flad (encounter), Spielhaus-Morrison Galerie, Berlin / DE
Surface - Wolfgang Flad & Sven Weigel, Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf / D
Anja Schwörer & Wolfgang Flad, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart / D
2005 Scarface, Galerie Jürgen Kalthoff, Essen / DE
Tangente, L'association La Tangente, Marseille / FR
Eine Uhr, die sich bewegt, ist schneller, KUNSTRAUM kleine galerie, Haus am Stadtsee, Bad Waldsee / DE

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2023 Transformationen: Materail & Auflösung", Van der Grinten Galerie, Köln / DE
Ping Pong / Museum der Stadt Albstadt, Albstadt / DE
minimal tendencies, Grasse / FR
40 Jahre / Emsdettener Kunstverein, Emsdetten
 / DE
Bottom Up / Kühlhaus, Berlin
 / DE
2022 Inventing Color / Artes Berlin / DE
Chromatic Perspective / Villa Friede, Bonn
 / DE
Skulpturenprojekt Hardt / Botanischer Garten Wuppertal

 / DE
Disrupture - 30Y after / Kunstraum Brüssel / BE
2021 HERE/there / Grölle Pass Projects, Wuppertal
 / DE
Tiene madera / Galeria Álvaro Alcázar, Madrid / SP
Portal / Luigi Solito Gallery, Neapel / IT
made in Germany / Bluerider Art / Taipeh / Taiwan

2020 10+ / Galerie Frank Taal, Rotterdam / NL

Berlin Baustelle / De Cacaofabriek, Helmond / NL
2019 Negativer Raum / ZKM, Karlsruhe / DE
Klondyke/ Galeria Monumental, Lissabon / PT
HERE/there Wexford meets Wuppertal/ Wexford County Council, Wexford Arts Centre/ IR
Abstraction vs Figuration / Kunstgenerator, Genf / CH
Rhyzome / Galerie Frank Taal, Rotterdam / NL
2018 Neue Abstraktion, Projektraum Dt. Künstlerbund, Berlin / DE
ankst / Städtische Galerie im Cordonhaus, Cham / DE
Delicious Disarray / Berlin Weekly, Berlin / DE
Madrid clash / Urg3l, Madrid / SP
we call it work / wir nennen es Arbeit / Botschaft Berlin, Berlin / DE
2016 The Berlin Case, Boris Yeltsin Center, Ekaterinburg / RUS
ja natürlich, Städtische Galerie Osterfoldern, Osterfoldern / DE
Die Geschichte hat einen Fehler / Zu Viele Erzähler, Kunstverein Kreis Gütersloh e.V., Gütersloh / DE
Zurück in die Zukunft, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin / DE
A Parrot's Aspiration / Artothek und Bildersaal / München / DE
Im Dialog mit Muthesius, Landhaus de Burlet, Berlin / DE
LITHOMANIA, Schau Fenster, Berlin / DE
NO LIMITS oder acht Kapitel Weg, Landesvertretung Baden-Württemberg, Berlin / DE
2015 ORANGE / Gerhard Hofland, Amsterdam, NL
141 Linien / Linienstr. 141, Berlin / DE
Grand Finale / Lady Fitness - contemporary art space, Berlin / DE
Grand Finale / Lady Fitness - contemporary art space, Berlin, DE
absprung / Marie Wolfgang, Essen, DE
WILDNIS / Kreuzberg Pavillon, Berlin, DE
Heimspiel / Städtische Galerie Reutlingen & Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen, DE
141 Linien / Linienstr. 141, Berlin, DE
Recordless Release / Echo Echo, Berlin, DE
Arcadia Unbound / Funkhaus Berlin, Berlin, DE
SKULPTUR, GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal, DE
i don’t care / Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, DE
2014 International Contemporary Art Festival / Bomb Gallery, Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina / BA
About Sculpture #1, Lady Fitness – contemporary art space, Berlin / D
Wolf & Flad / Ausstellungsraum Ursula Werz, Brandenburg / D
Daniele Buetti / Wolfgang Flad, Katz Contemporary, Zurich / CH
Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen / D (upcoming)
PRESENT, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Bethanien, Berlin / D
Checkpoint Ilgen#10, Kunstsalon "Checkpoint Ilgen", Berlin / D
Bomb Gallery auction, Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin
2013 Entering Space, peer to space in der Kunsthalle m3, Berlin / D
Karte und Gebiet / WIMMERplus, Prien am Chiemsee / D
The Living Dead, glue im Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin / D
The Legend of the Shelves, AUTOCENTER, Berlin / D
Nur was nicht ist ist möglich, Museum Folkwang, Essen / D
Rituals of Exhibition II, H Gallery, Chiang Mai / TH
ROT, GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal / D
ONE, SSIIEE, Berlin / D
Light Space Projects, Phayao / TH
2,3 - 3d (+), Ballhaus Ost, Berlin / B
Fritz Winter. Das Innere der Natur, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart / D
Abstrakte Skulpturen, Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe Ettlingen, Ettlingen / D
2012 choses vues à droite et à gauche (sans lunettes), Ballhaus Ost, Berlin / D
Abstract confusion, Neue Galerie Gladbeck, Gladbeck / D
Mohrenshow, Wurlitzer Art, Berlin / D
Berlin.Status [1], Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin / D
Living With Art, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart / D
Abstract confusion, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Erfurt / D
Muse, Aliseo Art Projects, Gengenbach / D
adhesion, Glue Schaufenster, Berlin / D
exploded view, Centraal Museum, Utrecht / NL
Earthbound, Gerhard Hofland, Amsterdam / NL
2011 Phantome, Uferhallen, Berlin / D
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart / D
Abstract confusion, b-05 Kunst- und Kulturzentrum, Montabaur / D
ABSTRAKT //// SKULPTUR, Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Berlin / D
The Visitation, Galerie Hartwich, Sellin / D
Abstract confusion, Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm / D
third transition zone, Kunstverein Pforzheim im Reuchlinhaus, Pforzheim / D
Checkpoint Ilgen#8, Kunstsalon "Checkpoint Ilgen", Berlin / D
Loveland Pass, GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal / D
Projekt Karten, Goethe-Institut Lyon, Lyon / F
One and more chairs, Einraumhaus c/o Mannheim, Mannheim / D
2010 Inter #4, Galerie Zink - Munich / D
Reigen, Artothek, Städtische Galerie, Munich / D
Lange nicht gesehen, KNOLL.art, Oberhöfen / D
schrägterrain, Columbus Art Foundation, Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig / D
Telephone, Matthew Bown Gallery - Berlin, Berlin / D
Einraumhaus, Einraumhaus c/o Mannheim, Mannheim / D
schrägterrain, Columbus Art Foundation, Kunsthalle Ravensburg, Ravensburg / D
Highest Expectation, Galerie Im Regierungsviertel - Forgotten Bar, Berlin / D
Wildwechsel, GRÖLLE pass:projects, Wuppertal / D
first steps, Bar Babette, Berlin / D
2009 Grosswetterlage, Stamers project, Windsor Court, New York City / USA
Dynamik in Form, item Kunstpreis für Malerei, item, Ulm-Einsingen / D
On A Clear Day I Can See Forever - The New Sentimentality, Whatspace, Tilburg / NL
A – F (Abstrakt bis Figurativ) Neue deutsche Skulptur, upstairs berlin, Berlin / D
Exposition inaugurative, Galerie Volchkova, Paris / F
Große Herbstausstellung, Kwadrat, Berlin / D
1949, Aschenbach & Hofland, Amsterdam / NL
Schickeria - High Society, Schickeria, BDA-Ausstellungsraum, Braunschweig / D
Zeigen. Eine Audiotour durch Berlin von Karin Sander, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin / D
2008 Alles – die Columbus Sammlung,/ Columbus Art Foundation, Ravensburg / D
Loop, Städtische Galerie Reutlingen, Reutlingen / D
Evolution,/ Max-Lang-Gallery, New York City / USA
Movement in Flexibility, Dollinger Art Project, Tel Aviv / IL
Der Garten im Museum, Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Berlin / D
Leben? Biomorphe Formen in der Skulptur, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz / A
Malcolm McLaren - Musical Paintings, Scheibler Mitte, Berlin / D
Neueröffnung 3, Autocenter, Berlin / D

A Group Show

TRANSFORMATION: MATERIAL & DISSOLUTION

Wolfgang Flad, Fernando de Brito, Joseph Beuys, Rikako Kawauchi, Rebecca Stevenson, Lorenzo Pompa, Elger Esser, Robert Currie

June 17, 2023

 — 

August 5, 2023

As the title of the show suggests, the focus here is on the alchemical aspect of art. This could perhaps be described as a recharging action, by which lifeless, inconspicuous material is reborn as something precious, fascinating, powerful and unique, and this element then remains purposely perceptible in the work. Perhaps to provoke wonder, a moment to stop and take up the scent that brings the viewer into active dialogue with the work and its aura.

The exhibition ‘TRANSFORMATIONS: MATERIAL AND DISSOLUTION’ brings together works of 11 international artists in which the transformation of materials plays a role, often a fundamental one. Here we encounter matter in the form of: dust, wax, paper, nylon, epoxy, glass, mirrored glass, silver, ink, graphite and plaster.

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) a major protagonist of the post-war avant-garde, Beuys is undisputedly among the most influential artists, whose understanding of material (also in the alchemical sense) went as far as the use of his own body. Here we present 6 very quiet, gentle frottage drawings that were made in the 50s in connection with his zinc relief „Vor der Geburt“ (Before the Birth).

The three-dimensional works of Japanese painter Rikako Kawauchi (*1990, lives in Tokyo) are made of flesh-colored serpentine structures cast in resin. They evoke organic entities that despite their utter abstraction exude an extreme realism.

Artist Wolfgang Flad (*1974, lives in Berlin) is represented with pieces from various work groups: abstract aluminum reliefs with a stark interplay between the shiny polished surface and the rough, pockmarked texture of the craters that blemish it to various degrees; colorful, reflective wall pieces from his ‘Dark Side of the Moon‘ cycle; and the latest works, large-format abstract tableaus with an uneven, sandy surface made of dust and sawdust collected from the floor of the artist’s studio, color-enhanced and transformed.

From a photographic template transferred in painting onto a collection of numerous thin, taught nylon threads, densely spaced yet offsetting each other, artist Robert Currie (*1976, lives in London) creates three-dimensional wall pieces that are visually extremely suggestive while appearing almost immaterial at the same time. His abstract works, on the other hand, evoke shadowy black mirrors.

Elger Esser (*1967, lives in Düsseldorf) here shows two small-format nightscapes, in which the black silhouettes of treetops are seen in the moonlight, outlined against the night sky. The special technique of direct pigment printing on silver-plated copper plates palpably communicates the magical atmosphere, as the eye roams the scene of darkest night, seeking orientation and a sense of space in the few light sources to be found.

The black and white photographs of Pierre Faure (*1965, lives in Paris) have a surprising extreme-yet- subtle alienation effect: with a flipped perspective, a skillfully chosen image edit and reduction of visual information down to purely geometric structures the perception of scaffolding is completely redefined.

Using more or less sharp objects, Fernando de Brito (*1956, lives in Hamburg), carves through the layers of oil and tempera built up on the MDF “canvas” to create paintings that are a mesh of lines. The principal of oscillation between clearly spaced straight vertical lines and freehand, dynamic horizontal lines seems to make each composition pulsate and allows it to breath.

Dutch artist Bas de Wit (*1977, lives in Maastricht) transforms casts of old art-historical sculptures, out of which he makes new, more rough-hewn castings, which he in turn then casts with colored layers of resin. This process leaves much room for deformation, by accident or design, resulting in newly created sculptures that are but a vague reminiscence of the original historical model, from which they have liberated themselves in stages, to assert their own existence in the end.

Wax, a flexible, user-friendly material, has been deployed widely throughout art history in the area of applied arts and for maquettes of planned sculptures. Rebecca Stevenson (*1971, lives in London), in contrast to the hyperrealism of the 60s or 90s, uses wax to sculpturally paraphrase the depiction of reality found in her poetic-macabre allegories.

The always intensely colorful figurative scenarios in the paintings of Lorenzo Pompa (*1962, lives in Düsseldorf) are joined at regular intervals, as if in an ongoing dialogue, by black-silver abstract works in which the oil paint is constrained in minimalistic gesture that depending on the size can become an almost unlimited textural field. This show presents the latest of these paintings.

Michael Wittassek (*1958, lives near Cologne), for his part, works mainly in the form of installation with sculptures of folded, crumpled sheets of exposed photographic paper. Here, however, we are showing mid-sized black, mirrored objects with a reflective convex surface that seems to suck in the surrounding space and even the viewers themselves.

We would like to thank the participating artists for their generous constructive input.

A Group Show

TRANSFORMATION: MATERIAL & DISSOLUTION

Wolfgang Flad, Fernando de Brito, Joseph Beuys, Rikako Kawauchi, Rebecca Stevenson, Lorenzo Pompa, Elger Esser, Robert Currie

June 17, 2023

 — 

August 5, 2023

As the title of the show suggests, the focus here is on the alchemical aspect of art. This could perhaps be described as a recharging action, by which lifeless, inconspicuous material is reborn as something precious, fascinating, powerful and unique, and this element then remains purposely perceptible in the work. Perhaps to provoke wonder, a moment to stop and take up the scent that brings the viewer into active dialogue with the work and its aura.

The exhibition ‘TRANSFORMATIONS: MATERIAL AND DISSOLUTION’ brings together works of 11 international artists in which the transformation of materials plays a role, often a fundamental one. Here we encounter matter in the form of: dust, wax, paper, nylon, epoxy, glass, mirrored glass, silver, ink, graphite and plaster.

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) a major protagonist of the post-war avant-garde, Beuys is undisputedly among the most influential artists, whose understanding of material (also in the alchemical sense) went as far as the use of his own body. Here we present 6 very quiet, gentle frottage drawings that were made in the 50s in connection with his zinc relief „Vor der Geburt“ (Before the Birth).

The three-dimensional works of Japanese painter Rikako Kawauchi (*1990, lives in Tokyo) are made of flesh-colored serpentine structures cast in resin. They evoke organic entities that despite their utter abstraction exude an extreme realism.

Artist Wolfgang Flad (*1974, lives in Berlin) is represented with pieces from various work groups: abstract aluminum reliefs with a stark interplay between the shiny polished surface and the rough, pockmarked texture of the craters that blemish it to various degrees; colorful, reflective wall pieces from his ‘Dark Side of the Moon‘ cycle; and the latest works, large-format abstract tableaus with an uneven, sandy surface made of dust and sawdust collected from the floor of the artist’s studio, color-enhanced and transformed.

From a photographic template transferred in painting onto a collection of numerous thin, taught nylon threads, densely spaced yet offsetting each other, artist Robert Currie (*1976, lives in London) creates three-dimensional wall pieces that are visually extremely suggestive while appearing almost immaterial at the same time. His abstract works, on the other hand, evoke shadowy black mirrors.

Elger Esser (*1967, lives in Düsseldorf) here shows two small-format nightscapes, in which the black silhouettes of treetops are seen in the moonlight, outlined against the night sky. The special technique of direct pigment printing on silver-plated copper plates palpably communicates the magical atmosphere, as the eye roams the scene of darkest night, seeking orientation and a sense of space in the few light sources to be found.

The black and white photographs of Pierre Faure (*1965, lives in Paris) have a surprising extreme-yet- subtle alienation effect: with a flipped perspective, a skillfully chosen image edit and reduction of visual information down to purely geometric structures the perception of scaffolding is completely redefined.

Using more or less sharp objects, Fernando de Brito (*1956, lives in Hamburg), carves through the layers of oil and tempera built up on the MDF “canvas” to create paintings that are a mesh of lines. The principal of oscillation between clearly spaced straight vertical lines and freehand, dynamic horizontal lines seems to make each composition pulsate and allows it to breath.

Dutch artist Bas de Wit (*1977, lives in Maastricht) transforms casts of old art-historical sculptures, out of which he makes new, more rough-hewn castings, which he in turn then casts with colored layers of resin. This process leaves much room for deformation, by accident or design, resulting in newly created sculptures that are but a vague reminiscence of the original historical model, from which they have liberated themselves in stages, to assert their own existence in the end.

Wax, a flexible, user-friendly material, has been deployed widely throughout art history in the area of applied arts and for maquettes of planned sculptures. Rebecca Stevenson (*1971, lives in London), in contrast to the hyperrealism of the 60s or 90s, uses wax to sculpturally paraphrase the depiction of reality found in her poetic-macabre allegories.

The always intensely colorful figurative scenarios in the paintings of Lorenzo Pompa (*1962, lives in Düsseldorf) are joined at regular intervals, as if in an ongoing dialogue, by black-silver abstract works in which the oil paint is constrained in minimalistic gesture that depending on the size can become an almost unlimited textural field. This show presents the latest of these paintings.

Michael Wittassek (*1958, lives near Cologne), for his part, works mainly in the form of installation with sculptures of folded, crumpled sheets of exposed photographic paper. Here, however, we are showing mid-sized black, mirrored objects with a reflective convex surface that seems to suck in the surrounding space and even the viewers themselves.

We would like to thank the participating artists for their generous constructive input.

Wolfgang Flad

Vibrant Gravity

June 12, 2021

 — 

August 21, 2021

In a deep frame, behind a pane of glass with a reflective iridescent effect, it is at first hard to even discern the reliefs in the latest series by Wolfgang Flad. But taking time to move back and forth in front of the work, to discover what lies behind the glass barrier, the viewer is treated to the exotic, rarefied surface that eventually reveals itself.

Punctuated by dynamic impaction holes and deep craters, these seemingly massive medium and large-format wall reliefs appear to be relicts retrieved from the depths of the deepest oceans or from another planet. The object comes and goes, vibrates and oscillates in the chatoyant reflections on the glass. The viewer is always mirrored there as well, stepping into the work, so to speak, while extending it to another dimension in the viewing space.  

Aluminum cast sculptures seize on the theme of opposites and the cunning interplay of contrasting surfaces that is a defining feature of the work of Wolfgang Flad: matte and glossy; natural and processed; alien yet somehow familiar; at once near and far.

New large-scale biomorphic wooden sculptures twist and twine in space, their graceful curves and delicate braches appearing to dance with the air in playful harmony. The formal complexity of these pieces challenges the viewer to appreciate them from all sides, to experience their effect in an intensive exchange that is both visual and physical.

Wolfgang Flad (*1974 in Reutlingen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. His work has been shown at numerous institutions worldwide and is in the public collections of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Kunsthaus Zurich, the Centraal Museum, Utrecht and the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida.

Wolfgang Flad

Vibrant Gravity

June 12, 2021

 — 

August 21, 2021

In a deep frame, behind a pane of glass with a reflective iridescent effect, it is at first hard to even discern the reliefs in the latest series by Wolfgang Flad. But taking time to move back and forth in front of the work, to discover what lies behind the glass barrier, the viewer is treated to the exotic, rarefied surface that eventually reveals itself.

Punctuated by dynamic impaction holes and deep craters, these seemingly massive medium and large-format wall reliefs appear to be relicts retrieved from the depths of the deepest oceans or from another planet. The object comes and goes, vibrates and oscillates in the chatoyant reflections on the glass. The viewer is always mirrored there as well, stepping into the work, so to speak, while extending it to another dimension in the viewing space.  

Aluminum cast sculptures seize on the theme of opposites and the cunning interplay of contrasting surfaces that is a defining feature of the work of Wolfgang Flad: matte and glossy; natural and processed; alien yet somehow familiar; at once near and far.

New large-scale biomorphic wooden sculptures twist and twine in space, their graceful curves and delicate braches appearing to dance with the air in playful harmony. The formal complexity of these pieces challenges the viewer to appreciate them from all sides, to experience their effect in an intensive exchange that is both visual and physical.

Wolfgang Flad (*1974 in Reutlingen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. His work has been shown at numerous institutions worldwide and is in the public collections of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Kunsthaus Zurich, the Centraal Museum, Utrecht and the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida.

Wolfgang Flad

The Dark Side of the Moon

June 7, 2019

 — 

July 27, 2019

On the one hand, the title of the new series of works The Dark Side of the Moon describes the vivid, highly aesthetically pleasing appearance of these images. On the other hand, however, the title goes much further, in the metaphorical sense also clearly intended by the artist.

The aesthetic appearance of the work, its face, is inspired by the crater-pocked surface of the moon. Wolfgang Flad’s whole body of sculptural work draws on observations from micro- and macrobiology, of biomorphic structures and phases of growth, for its formal repertoire. Now this is joined by an extraterrestrial language of form, familiar to us since the advent of photography. And at the same time, these new wall pieces are a progression arising out of the steps taken in earlier reliefs: first, indentations are made in monochrome-painted wooden panels, the milling of which allows the grain of the plywood beneath to come to light. Next, structures are milled into painted surfaces on which various iridescent colors run together, suddenly creating a breathtaking pictorial space. This seems to virtually compel the next progression in the work: surfaces that display a material that is torn open, wounded and, contrary to the drawing created by the milling, here gives rise to a raw, sculptural intervention into the material. One can certainly speak here of an opening of the dark, existential side of these images. The reliefs are paired with a colored mirrored glass plate, which shields the delicate “moonscape” while creating a chatoyant color effect that can best be compared to the shimmering changeable luster of a hologram.

The latest mid-sized and large format relief pieces work an exceptional magic and the manner of their creation remains enigmatic. The unusual combination of materials, the way they are formed and the resulting effect clearly places them in the tradition of the reliefs of Yves Klein, works which are highly significant for post-war art history: by means of abstraction they made resonant bodies of spirituality possible.

Wolfgang Flad

The Dark Side of the Moon

June 7, 2019

 — 

July 27, 2019

On the one hand, the title of the new series of works The Dark Side of the Moon describes the vivid, highly aesthetically pleasing appearance of these images. On the other hand, however, the title goes much further, in the metaphorical sense also clearly intended by the artist.

The aesthetic appearance of the work, its face, is inspired by the crater-pocked surface of the moon. Wolfgang Flad’s whole body of sculptural work draws on observations from micro- and macrobiology, of biomorphic structures and phases of growth, for its formal repertoire. Now this is joined by an extraterrestrial language of form, familiar to us since the advent of photography. And at the same time, these new wall pieces are a progression arising out of the steps taken in earlier reliefs: first, indentations are made in monochrome-painted wooden panels, the milling of which allows the grain of the plywood beneath to come to light. Next, structures are milled into painted surfaces on which various iridescent colors run together, suddenly creating a breathtaking pictorial space. This seems to virtually compel the next progression in the work: surfaces that display a material that is torn open, wounded and, contrary to the drawing created by the milling, here gives rise to a raw, sculptural intervention into the material. One can certainly speak here of an opening of the dark, existential side of these images. The reliefs are paired with a colored mirrored glass plate, which shields the delicate “moonscape” while creating a chatoyant color effect that can best be compared to the shimmering changeable luster of a hologram.

The latest mid-sized and large format relief pieces work an exceptional magic and the manner of their creation remains enigmatic. The unusual combination of materials, the way they are formed and the resulting effect clearly places them in the tradition of the reliefs of Yves Klein, works which are highly significant for post-war art history: by means of abstraction they made resonant bodies of spirituality possible.

Wolfgang Flad

unicycle in the universe

September 2, 2016

 — 

October 29, 2016

Van der Grinten Galerie is pleased to announce our move into our new gallery space in Gertrudenstraße 29. This historic ensemble of buildings comprises three town houses whose distinct bel étage offers space of 110 sqm for the gallery and our artists, and inspires a fascinating dialogue between the past and the present. Now located on the first floor, our premises will integrate the gallery work, the mediation of young contemporary art and historical positions, the presentation of our book publications and editions as well as our events series into an even more personal atmosphere than what has long since become Van der Grinten Galerie’s trademark.

For the start of the season and the DC Open Weekend on September 2, we are opening our doors with the single exhibition unicycle in the universe… of Berlin artist Wolfgang Flad.

Flad, who was born in Reutlingen in 1974, studied Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 2000 to 2004. Ever since, his work has reached a wide audience through numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad. One of his most impressive hanging sculptures to date is currently and up to December 2017 being displayed in TAMPA Museum of Art in Florida.

In the current exhibition he also presents an expansive, floating sculpture that creates the impression of a swirl of biomorphic shapes, frozen in a wild, dynamic movement. Flad is constantly confronting the issue of depicting dynamic movement in a static state, and making volume and density seem weightless. The organic shapes of his sculptures result from the timber constructions branching out rhythmically into the room like a three-dimensional drawing. He smoothens the sharp edges, and he moulds the intersections and surfaces with papier mâché that he produces from shredding art history documents. This way, Flad recycles thoughts and writings about art and incorporates them into his works.

The new relief works, that also form part of the exhibition, have their origin in a 14-part wall frieze that the artist created in connection with our last joint book production. Here, for the first time, he experimented with colour gradients on lacquered surfaces. The results are wall pieces that combine iridescent surfaces with his painterly gestures, milled into the wood. This creates a bafflingly three-dimensional effect, it provides them with depth and shows the artist’s systematic development of his relief works.

Wolfgang Flad

unicycle in the universe

September 2, 2016

 — 

October 29, 2016

Van der Grinten Galerie is pleased to announce our move into our new gallery space in Gertrudenstraße 29. This historic ensemble of buildings comprises three town houses whose distinct bel étage offers space of 110 sqm for the gallery and our artists, and inspires a fascinating dialogue between the past and the present. Now located on the first floor, our premises will integrate the gallery work, the mediation of young contemporary art and historical positions, the presentation of our book publications and editions as well as our events series into an even more personal atmosphere than what has long since become Van der Grinten Galerie’s trademark.

For the start of the season and the DC Open Weekend on September 2, we are opening our doors with the single exhibition unicycle in the universe… of Berlin artist Wolfgang Flad.

Flad, who was born in Reutlingen in 1974, studied Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 2000 to 2004. Ever since, his work has reached a wide audience through numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad. One of his most impressive hanging sculptures to date is currently and up to December 2017 being displayed in TAMPA Museum of Art in Florida.

In the current exhibition he also presents an expansive, floating sculpture that creates the impression of a swirl of biomorphic shapes, frozen in a wild, dynamic movement. Flad is constantly confronting the issue of depicting dynamic movement in a static state, and making volume and density seem weightless. The organic shapes of his sculptures result from the timber constructions branching out rhythmically into the room like a three-dimensional drawing. He smoothens the sharp edges, and he moulds the intersections and surfaces with papier mâché that he produces from shredding art history documents. This way, Flad recycles thoughts and writings about art and incorporates them into his works.

The new relief works, that also form part of the exhibition, have their origin in a 14-part wall frieze that the artist created in connection with our last joint book production. Here, for the first time, he experimented with colour gradients on lacquered surfaces. The results are wall pieces that combine iridescent surfaces with his painterly gestures, milled into the wood. This creates a bafflingly three-dimensional effect, it provides them with depth and shows the artist’s systematic development of his relief works.

Wolfgang Flad

Marc Wellmann: Everything Grows. Wolfgang Flad’s Sculptural Work

January 1, 2013

Wolfgang Flad’s organic vocabulary of forms—as found in wallpieces as well is in three-dimensional ones—is made up of motifs of growth, proliferation and interlinkage. The smooth, geometric shapes of lacquered plinths are an ever-recurring element that function as an integral component of the sculptures. What is striking about his entwined and thrusting, dynamized configurations, which can expand into entire environments, is the large format attuned to the human body. His works are neither understood as miniatures nor as existing in the medium of photographic images. A crucial aspect of their effect is a physically-determined confrontation with viewers that is actualized as a space-related experience. The process of the viewers’ physical approach and walk-around movements mirror certain stylistic characteristics of the sculptures themselves, whose complexities and size are staged as a mild form of aesthetic submersion. Also the viewers’ engagement with the originals inevitably ends in questions as to the material itself and its production process as a first step toward intellectual comprehension. But it is at this point that Wolfgang Flad’s work holds several surprises in store.

Very often an impression arises that the sculptures have been carved from a single block. An impression reinforced, among other things, by monochrome borders and the geometrically-curbed edges at the end of tentacle-like outcroppings that prohibit or restrain the sculptures’ gesticulating qualities. In fact all the works are constructed from inside out and the large volumes turn out to be a scenario of hollow figures. Flad builds his configurations from commercially available wooden panels and slats, which he composes to a spatial constellation using angle brackets and screw connectors. In a second step, the wood pieces are whittled down and rounded into slim stalks. Flad, however, achieves this organic lightness above all by the following, additive process: with papier maché he coats and smoothes out the transitions and connecting joints. In conclusion, Flad’s original training as a painter becomes manifest in the polychrome exterior he then applies, often with metallic effects. In several places he chooses to display the materiality of the wood by partially rubbing off this outer skin. The colored coating conceals the physicality of the papier maché, but occurs intermittently. The process of deceiving and undeceiving in what is a present-day conceptual way has namely been factored in.   Thus in this context the artist communicates the fact that the papier maché is not the usual standard material, but has been attained from shredding texts written by art critics. Wolfgang Flad recycles the thinking and the writing on art by incorporating it as concrete material into his artworks! If you will, you may detect here a good proportion of humor. But a closer look allows you also to read this material statement as commentary on a retrospective look back at the abstract formal world of the 1950s and 60s, which Wolfgang Flad, a postborn descendent of the same, reacts to and openly avows. In this sense the textual material takes up a communicative posture toward modernism, whose appropriation in the form of neo-modernism cannot be seamlessly generated. As an autonomous cover version, Wolfgang Flad consciously plays with an ambivalent semblance, whose demystification is part of the program. This is the way the boney structure of Flad’s sculptures means to be understood, which the artist himself describes as “gnawed skeletons”, that is, as the reflected glory of the sated fleshiness of an early organic abstraction as found, for example, in the works of Hans Arp. In morbid pathos, Flad’s sculptures thus rear up, fragile and unprotected, against history’s force.

His new series of bronze casts continue to implement this idea in a further innovation. They have been produced from molds of the wood and papier maché originals and therefore possess the ontological status of copies that have preserved the above-noted conceptual breaches in the form of a trace, quasi as a vessel. Yet, at the same time, they signal a return to the original or intrinsic material of the majority of modern sculptures that have come down to us. The up-to-dateness of Flad’s works is evidenced not least of all by the color accents on some of the cast material’s planes, in part also as lacquer from a spray gun, a shimmery and calculated taboo breach.

Similar deceptive and redeployed structures can also be seen in Wolfgang Flad’s wallpieces. As early as his student days at the Art Academy in Stuttgart, he initiated the technique of working the multi-lacquered plywood boards with drill and molding cutter so interspersedly that the breaks in the material looked like gestural paint drippings. This scenario of dynamic movement is the product of a highly mastered, handcrafted and transforming process that renders the seeming flow of paint into the fixity of industrially prefabricated materials. This process that he still deploys today borrows analogies from the perforated photographs of Daniele Buetti, an artist for whom Flad long worked as an assistant. In a current series of aluminum reliefs, Flad further developed the formal concept of the wallpieces. At first glance these too recall paint splatters like those produced on canvas during a painting act. But this time, these come about from cauterizing blocks of Styrofoam that the artist then has cast in aluminum in a process of lost casting; the one-of-a-kind piece is then given a color-nuanced polish.

Wolfgang Flad’s oeuvre, by means of quotations and ironic distance, supersedes the formal problem that is contained in the title of this article. Which in turn is based on the biologistic use of the dictum “panta rhei” that is said to go back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus and means “everything flows” in regards to the idea of an eternal transformation of being.

What appears to be a firmly established form, such as the serpentine meanderings of a river, is subject to an inner dynamism that, in this case, constantly renews the water. From which idea another famous Heraclitus quote resulted: you can never step into the same river twice. As a sculptural theme, these questions revolve around the eternal paradox between the constancy of the sculptural material and its relationship to transience and, in the end, to the intangibility of the living. The motifs of growth in the tradition of organic abstraction in Flad’s works doubtlessly assert themselves as forms in space. But beyond this, they are catalysts in a quite involved conceptual game that is played solely in the mind and which, as a feature of thinking, reshapes the three-dimensional figures animistically.

Marc Wellmann, 2013
English translation: Jeanne Haunschild

Wolfgang Flad

Marc Wellmann: Everything Grows. Wolfgang Flad’s Sculptural Work

January 1, 2013

Wolfgang Flad’s organic vocabulary of forms—as found in wallpieces as well is in three-dimensional ones—is made up of motifs of growth, proliferation and interlinkage. The smooth, geometric shapes of lacquered plinths are an ever-recurring element that function as an integral component of the sculptures. What is striking about his entwined and thrusting, dynamized configurations, which can expand into entire environments, is the large format attuned to the human body. His works are neither understood as miniatures nor as existing in the medium of photographic images. A crucial aspect of their effect is a physically-determined confrontation with viewers that is actualized as a space-related experience. The process of the viewers’ physical approach and walk-around movements mirror certain stylistic characteristics of the sculptures themselves, whose complexities and size are staged as a mild form of aesthetic submersion. Also the viewers’ engagement with the originals inevitably ends in questions as to the material itself and its production process as a first step toward intellectual comprehension. But it is at this point that Wolfgang Flad’s work holds several surprises in store.

Very often an impression arises that the sculptures have been carved from a single block. An impression reinforced, among other things, by monochrome borders and the geometrically-curbed edges at the end of tentacle-like outcroppings that prohibit or restrain the sculptures’ gesticulating qualities. In fact all the works are constructed from inside out and the large volumes turn out to be a scenario of hollow figures. Flad builds his configurations from commercially available wooden panels and slats, which he composes to a spatial constellation using angle brackets and screw connectors. In a second step, the wood pieces are whittled down and rounded into slim stalks. Flad, however, achieves this organic lightness above all by the following, additive process: with papier maché he coats and smoothes out the transitions and connecting joints. In conclusion, Flad’s original training as a painter becomes manifest in the polychrome exterior he then applies, often with metallic effects. In several places he chooses to display the materiality of the wood by partially rubbing off this outer skin. The colored coating conceals the physicality of the papier maché, but occurs intermittently. The process of deceiving and undeceiving in what is a present-day conceptual way has namely been factored in.   Thus in this context the artist communicates the fact that the papier maché is not the usual standard material, but has been attained from shredding texts written by art critics. Wolfgang Flad recycles the thinking and the writing on art by incorporating it as concrete material into his artworks! If you will, you may detect here a good proportion of humor. But a closer look allows you also to read this material statement as commentary on a retrospective look back at the abstract formal world of the 1950s and 60s, which Wolfgang Flad, a postborn descendent of the same, reacts to and openly avows. In this sense the textual material takes up a communicative posture toward modernism, whose appropriation in the form of neo-modernism cannot be seamlessly generated. As an autonomous cover version, Wolfgang Flad consciously plays with an ambivalent semblance, whose demystification is part of the program. This is the way the boney structure of Flad’s sculptures means to be understood, which the artist himself describes as “gnawed skeletons”, that is, as the reflected glory of the sated fleshiness of an early organic abstraction as found, for example, in the works of Hans Arp. In morbid pathos, Flad’s sculptures thus rear up, fragile and unprotected, against history’s force.

His new series of bronze casts continue to implement this idea in a further innovation. They have been produced from molds of the wood and papier maché originals and therefore possess the ontological status of copies that have preserved the above-noted conceptual breaches in the form of a trace, quasi as a vessel. Yet, at the same time, they signal a return to the original or intrinsic material of the majority of modern sculptures that have come down to us. The up-to-dateness of Flad’s works is evidenced not least of all by the color accents on some of the cast material’s planes, in part also as lacquer from a spray gun, a shimmery and calculated taboo breach.

Similar deceptive and redeployed structures can also be seen in Wolfgang Flad’s wallpieces. As early as his student days at the Art Academy in Stuttgart, he initiated the technique of working the multi-lacquered plywood boards with drill and molding cutter so interspersedly that the breaks in the material looked like gestural paint drippings. This scenario of dynamic movement is the product of a highly mastered, handcrafted and transforming process that renders the seeming flow of paint into the fixity of industrially prefabricated materials. This process that he still deploys today borrows analogies from the perforated photographs of Daniele Buetti, an artist for whom Flad long worked as an assistant. In a current series of aluminum reliefs, Flad further developed the formal concept of the wallpieces. At first glance these too recall paint splatters like those produced on canvas during a painting act. But this time, these come about from cauterizing blocks of Styrofoam that the artist then has cast in aluminum in a process of lost casting; the one-of-a-kind piece is then given a color-nuanced polish.

Wolfgang Flad’s oeuvre, by means of quotations and ironic distance, supersedes the formal problem that is contained in the title of this article. Which in turn is based on the biologistic use of the dictum “panta rhei” that is said to go back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus and means “everything flows” in regards to the idea of an eternal transformation of being.

What appears to be a firmly established form, such as the serpentine meanderings of a river, is subject to an inner dynamism that, in this case, constantly renews the water. From which idea another famous Heraclitus quote resulted: you can never step into the same river twice. As a sculptural theme, these questions revolve around the eternal paradox between the constancy of the sculptural material and its relationship to transience and, in the end, to the intangibility of the living. The motifs of growth in the tradition of organic abstraction in Flad’s works doubtlessly assert themselves as forms in space. But beyond this, they are catalysts in a quite involved conceptual game that is played solely in the mind and which, as a feature of thinking, reshapes the three-dimensional figures animistically.

Marc Wellmann, 2013
English translation: Jeanne Haunschild