Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Temporary texture, solo exhibition by Valerie Krause. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
VALERIE KRAUSE
O.T., 2022
Steel, jute, plaster
154 x 126 x 80 cm
VALERIE KRAUSE
Projection, 2022
Inkjetprint on projection film
171 x 307 cm
VALERIE KRAUSE
Mauerstein, 2022
Lime-sand brick, plaster filler, transferred laser print
24 x 7 x 11.5 cm
VALERIE KRAUSE
Mauerstein, 2022
Lime-sand brick, plaster filler, transferred laser print
24 x 7 x 11.5 cm
VALERIE KRAUSE
O.T., 2022
Steel, glass, varnish
113 x 125 x 60 cm
Atemporality is a term that I would be tempted to use to describe Valerie Krause’s works.
Perhaps because of her choice of materials such as steel, jute and plaster and the serene range of greys, blacks and whites her pieces are hard to be linked to a specific period.
But the title of Krause’s solo show suggests I should avoid linking the artist’s practice to this term. The way the materials have structured the exhibition leads to thoughts of what is yet to happen, to immerse oneself into the uncertainty of the future. The works titled O.T. express a state of ‘being on the verge’ of something, of that slight vertigo that we feel when there is an unfinished movement towards an unknown space.
The jute piece stands in a dichotomic position, sustaining the tension between the gravity pulling down and the touch with the steel pulling it up. At the same time, the wrinkles and traces left by the artist’s manipulation of the fibre, causes the works to be present in space while simultaneously looking towards the past.
Thinking about it twice, time is in fact a quality that defines Krause’s sculptures. The past is visible in the vestige of textures that were in contact with one another, the future is hinted by the structure of the works, and the present is squeezed between these two, in the impermanent moment of this exhibition, Temporary Texture.
The word solid also came to mind when I first discovered Valerie’s works. And again, I realise that it would convey only a partial description of her practice. What purpose would it serve to use a word with such rigid connotations?
Solid would refer to the artist’s ability to infuse a balanced corporeality to the works through materials and structure. Krause’s genuine appreciation for everyday materials is perceivable throughout the exhibition space. This harmony is only achieved by giving the same importance to what we see and what we don’t see. Sculpture’s everlasting question of the absence.
Sculpting is linked to erosion, to the action of taking material off from a surface. Sculptors seem to have a visual memory of what is extracted, of the movements followed, of their invisible marks. Like the drawing left on the retina when one looks directly to the sun and closes the eyes. It is all a matter of combining those ghost traces with the tangible solid material.
And still, despite the rational balance of her installations, the way Krause works in the studio has a lot to do with intuition. It’s all about creating an atmosphere that allows movements to flow and the right dynamism to be transferred to the pieces, so they are able to act as open questions more than as unmovable statements.
This is achieved by focusing on how to transfer intangible things to a tangible realm. In works like Mauerstein or Projection she wanted to address this question by working with a digital process while keeping the physical dimension of the medium. For Projection she worked with multiple projections of blurred light and photographs on the wall of her studio. The outcome is somehow abstract, the resulting image of different layers of thinking, of various decisions. Once again, the medium has rationalised thought.
In Room 2, the space that is probably the most versatile at L21 Gallery, the exhibition offers countless readings. The structure of the show also plays with the possibilities of encounter and dialogue, placing the pieces in strategic points so they are visible from other exhibition rooms. All in all, thanks to that structure and to the reluctance of the works to fit into the category atemporal and solid, the project manages to transcend its current state to encapsulate the possibility of change.
Aina Pomar Cloquell
EN / ES
“0º/90º” solo exhibition by Valerie Krause, 2020. Installation view at L21.
O.T. , 2020
Wood and colored plaster
200 x 5 x 3 cm
O.T. , 2020
Wood and colored plaster
200 x 5 x 3 cm
O.T. , 2020
Wood and colored plaster
200 x 5 x 3 cm
“0º/90º” solo exhibition by Valerie Krause, 2020. Installation view at L21.
“0º/90º” solo exhibition by Valerie Krause, 2020. Installation view at L21.
Where (to) I , 2019
Wood and colored plaster
168 x 132 x 39 cm
Where (to) I , 2019
Wood and colored plaster
168 x 132 x 39 cm
Where (to) I , 2019
Wood and colored plaster
168 x 132 x 39 cm
“0º/90º” solo exhibition by Valerie Krause, 2020. Installation view at L21.
O.T., 2006
Gelatin silver print
16.5 x 29 cm
O.T., 2020
Galvanized steel
20 x 95 x 260 cm
“0º/90º” solo exhibition by Valerie Krause, 2020. Installation view at L21.
O.T., 2020
Galvanized steel
20 x 95 x 260 cm
O.T., 2020
Galvanized steel
20 x 95 x 260 cm
“0º/90º” solo exhibition by Valerie Krause, 2020. Installation view at L21.
O.T., 2020
Plaster, jute and steel
91 x 154 x 85 cm
O.T., 2020
Plaster, jute and steel
91 x 154 x 85 cm
O.T., 2020
Plaster, jute and steel
91 x 154 x 85 cm
O.T., 2020
Close-up
The horizontal from a vertical view
One definition of space describes it by its expansion in height, width, and depth. This can also be applied to a single sculpture or an installation of several sculptures in a space. Among other properties, the spatial orientation of a sculpture is essential to its character.
For a long time, I have been concerned with the subject of vastness, distance and expansion in sculpture. Something that expands in front of or next to the viewer and has more to do with the landscape than with the classic concept of statues.
However, it is not about illustrating a landscape, but about something that we associate with certain peculiarities of the landscape, both in a spatial and metaphorical sense: extensions, directions, distances, places, locations, levels, proportions.
From the vertical perspective of an upright body, I associate the concept of landscape with the horizontal, something that takes place in front of or next to us. Even if we find us located in a landscape, it is always in front of us, wherever we look we can
never locate the place of the landscape itself, because it’s not a fixed place, but always extending further. There is something beyond reach.
A rhythm in a horizontal form has a completely different effect from that in the vertical, by passing, it has more to do with walking and movement.
However, the horizontal carries also something passive, dormant, subject to gravity, wanting to let something be or even wanting to overcome it.
The sculptures in this exhibition are dealing with this relationship in space: the horizontal from a vertical perspective, which unfolds its effect through the contrast of the other. They are fragments, like sections of the space, which together form a whole in their rhythm, and modify the space by their position.
Valerie Krause (Herdecke, 1976) lives and works in Düsseldorf. She was formed at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf and has had solo shows at galleries like Greta Meert, Brussels, Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, L21, Madrid and Mallorca, Galerie Holtmann, Cologne and recently at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne. In her group exhibitions we find places such as KIT Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstalast Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Recklinhausen, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, among others. She has received the prize for New Talents by Audi at Art Cologne. Her work is part of public collections like the contemporary art collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Konrad Adenauer Siftung in Italy or the Collection of NRW.
EN / ES
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
Untitled Blue, 2016
Glazed ceramics, 57 x 40 x 9 cm
Untitled Blue, 2016
Glazed ceramics, 57 x 40 x 9 cm
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
Restless Tension, 2017
Plaster, jute, steel, 170 x 116 x 30 cm
Restless Tension, 2017
Plaster, jute, steel, 170 x 116 x 30 cm
Restless Tension, 2017
Plaster, jute, steel, 170 x 116 x 30 cm
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
Untitled, 2017
Concrete, 102 x 83 x 28 cm
Untitled, 2017
Concrete, 102 x 83 x 28 cm
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
Flur, 2017,
Galvanized steel, 26 x 665 x 575 cm
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
Untitled, 2017
Loam, straw, 88 x 134 x 155 cm
Untitled, 2017
Loam, straw, 88 x 134 x 155 cm
Untitled, 2017
Loam, straw, 88 x 134 x 155 cm
Untitled, 2017
Loam, straw, 88 x 134 x 155 cm
“Interface” by Valerie Krause, 2017. Installation view at L21.
I think my obsession for plasterboard screws precedes me. The hardware store gives me a box of 1000 screws as soon as they see me come in. Like a customer ordering coffee in his favorite bar.
They’re black, sharp, aesthetically perfect. Extremely useful.They look great attached to wood.
Sometimes I feel like sucking on them. Maybe they taste like black licorice, although I prefer the red one. It’s sweeter.
Imagine a space covered in loam, piled up in the center, forming a compact mound, cut in half and separated creating a new piece, offering a new reading.
Scattered plaster, nearly frozen, shaping an organic structure.
Hanging from a black steel rod, in front of another piece of plaster, this time more geometrical and perfect.
Retracted cement, opened on top and below, placed very high, to show its weight and lightness. Surface and form.
Wrinkled steel and cut steel. One is hemispherical and convex and the other piece is bigger and concave. Placed very close from each other, nearly touching. Over the warehouse’s grey floor, reflecting the abundant light that comes through the roof’s windows.
Glazed ceramic of perfect geometry, blue, hanging from the wall, at medium height.
Can my words convince of the size of what we’re dealing with? I don’t think so. I’m not capable of speaking about it fluently. Its appearance overwhelms me, leaves me blank. It knocks me out and hits me with milimetric precision. Pure state, solid, liquid and even gaseous. Air everywhere that dances to the rhythm of tango. Intense, but relaxed.
I uncover codes that make them familiar between each other, associations of their own gestures that define the nature of the artist that materialize and transform in an uncodified language.
I’m thinking again that it’s not easy for me to speak about them. I’m back on the keyboard, mashing keys searching for the meaning of this text that can’t find the fluency to speak about her.
How does she do it? What’s her formula? Where’s the trick? Why does it excite me? It overwhelms me, it overwhelms me, it blocks me and leaves me speechless.
Loam, steel, plaster, ceramic, concrete. Solid and liquid, solid and liquid. It returns to the form. I return to the form.
Without screws? Can this artist’s work be attached without screws? Invisible links, but disgustingly evident. Signs that transform the artist’s work into a stroll through the clouds. One of the good ones, the pleasant ones. One of those that happen after a stormy day.
I return my gaze to the front, this time over the screen. I see the sea, the clouds are clearing up. The wind shakes the awning’s canvas. There are no screws in sight. I think it’s time I go back to the industrial park, to pick up a box of my prized twisted little friends.
Óscar Florit
EN / ES
O.T., 2015
Plaster
51 x 45 x 29 cm
SHIFTING VOLUME, 2015 Concrete
17 x 147 x 7 cm
O.T., 2015
Wood, steel, fabric, paint 162 x 81 x 163 cm
O.T., 2015
Wood, steel, fabric, paint 162 x 81 x 163 cm
Valerie Krause (Herdecke, Germany, 1976) works with the relationships established between sculpture and spectator within the context of an exhibition. Her first individual show in Spain, shifting volume, focuses on changes of dimensions, position and the places which the volumes of her sculptures generate. The apparent minimalist presence very soon becomes an emotional dimension, an unstable balance between the material and the possible or rather between what we see and what we are able to perceive. Her work emphasises volumes and the dynamism which solid bodies hold.
Valerie Krause’s sculptures and photographs revolve around spacial formulas which create a light but at the same time forceful atmosphere. Her works interact both in urban spaces as well as with forms close to nature without being able to reduce them within the stagnant course of a cultural/naturalistic dichotomy. For her exhibition at L 21 gallery in Madrid, Krause presents three new sculptures selected specifically for this occasion.
The first sculpture hangs in the small window facing the street in the space known as THE WINDOW. Once inside the gallery, the spectator finds two works, opposed although complementary modifying the structure of the space.
Her sculptures always adopt displaced forms which require a floating attention from the spectators in order to stop and enjoy themselves with this carefully organized swing.
The play of light and dark which Krause translates into three dimensions questions that malicious phrase that Dalí pronounced regarding Calder’s mobiles: “The least one can expect of a sculpture is that it doesn’t move”.
The artist’s Works are concentrated and intense elements. They are organic sculptures organized through a slow process of cleansing which don’t completely evade all those structures which have begun the creative process. Continuous movements which reach their balance between the accents and the pauses like a long rehearsed dance, these sculptures draw up an abstract geometry in order to rethink the space in which the spectator is invited to wander around.
These are works which strongly reject a finish which crystallises them into a definite shape. The works in this exhibition remain silent within an open space which refuse any reference to the world that surrounds us so as to open up into another where we can let our imagination stroll. Its structural clarity remains in an area of complex tension which cannot be reduced nor afinalpointbefoundbecauseitisnotpossible to define an emotion – we can only empathize with a certain feeling. And that is by no means little.
EN / ES
Valerie Krause (b. 1976, Herdecke, Germany) work emphasises volumes and the hidden dynamism that solid bodies can hold. Her sculptures adopt elementary forms: they are not strictly geometrical constructs, but shapes that seem to assume movement in space, accompanied by a gentle minimisation of the forms. The relation between objects and the surrounding space is a central theme in Krause’s artistic research. Walking through her sculptures we perceive space, as a place that express changing. The interchange of materials such as plaster, steel and wood is accompanied by changes in the forms, some of them rigid, static, others more dynamic. Through layers, twisting and emphasised diagonals, she underlines the intrinsic dynamism of the material, denoting an impression of instability that interferes with the spectator’s perception of the space.
Recent solo shows include: Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (Belgium, 2020; 2015; 2013), Rolando Anselmi (Rome, 2019, Berlin 2015; 2013, Marseille 2014), L21 Gallery (Palma De Mallorca, 2020 and 2017; 2015, Madrid), Kunst-Station Sankt Peter (Köln, 2016), Vitrine der Landesvertretung (Berlin, 2013). Recent group shows include: Galerie Greta Meert (Brusselles, 2018; 2011), Galerie L21 (Palma de Mallorca, 2022, 2016), Kunst im Tunnel (Düsseldorf, 2016), Kunsthaus NRW, Aachen (2016), Haus der Kunst (Palermo, 2016), Rolando Anselmi (Rome, 2016; Berlin, 2014), Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, 2022; 2014), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (Germany, 2013), Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Palermo (Palermo, 2013), Skulpturenpark Köln (Köln, 2013), Kunsthalle Recklinghausen (2011).
She has received the prize for New Talents by Audi at Art Cologne. Her work is part of public collections like the contemporary art collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Konrad Adenauer Siftung in Italy or the Collection of NRW.
CV
Valerie Krause (b. 1976, Herdecke, Germany)
Lives and works in Solingen.
EDUCATION
1996-1999 Stonemason apprenticeship with Fritz Meyer in Düsseldorf (Germany)
2001-2007
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Germany)
2005
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (France)
2006
“Meisterschülertitel” by Didier Vermeiren
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Temporary texture. L21, Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
2020
Blank Spot. Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (Belgium)
0 ° / 90 °. Gallery L21, Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
2019
Contiguous Space. Gallery Rolando Anselmi, Rome (Italy)
2017
Interface. L21, Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
2016
Glanz und Körnigkeit. Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne (Germany)
2015
forming space / spacing form. Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (Belgium)
Shifting volume. L21, Madrid (Spain)
Shifting volume. Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (Germany)
Dialog. Shi Fang Fine Art with Friedrich Meyer. Düsseldorf (Germany)
2014
L’avenir est une promesse, Galerie Rolando Anselmi Art-O-Rama, Marseille (France)
2013
immaterial, Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (Germany)
so weit,so lange, Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (Belgium)
Kunst aus NRW – unpaarig Vitrine der Landesvertretung NRW, Berlin (Germany)
2012
Der Raum einer Bewegung, Galerie Holtmann, Cologne (Germany)
2011
Städtische Galerie, Kaarst, with Gerlinde Salentin,
Brizzel, Institut für skulpturelle Peripherie Düsseldorf, with Claudia Hinsch (Germany)
2010
MON BLANC, with Elisa Bauer, Galerie Holtmann, Cologne (Germany)
2009
pièces, artothek, Raum für junge Kunst, Cologne (Germany)
2008
Helle Nächte, Galerie K4, Munich (Germany)
pampa, with Richard Hölters. Kulturfabrik, Krefeld (Germany)
Förderkoje Art Cologne, Galerie Holtmann, Cologne (Germany)
hier und da, bbb. With Didier Béquillard. centre régional d’initiatives art contemporain,Toulouse (France)
2006
ein fester Traum, Malkasten, Düsseldorf (Germany)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Entre Cajas. L21 Palma, Palma (ES)
ARCOMadrid. L21 Gallery, Madrid (ES)
2022
Festival del Paesaggio. Museum Villa San Michele, Anacapri (Italy)
CAN ART FAIR, L21 Gallery, Ibiza (Spain)
2021
Looking through the windows wearing only socks, L21 LAB, Palma (Spain)
Palermo Panorama, Haus der Kunst, Palermo (Italy)
2020
Skulpturenprojekt, Hardt, Botanischer Garten, Wuppertal
Grand Opening Roma, Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Rome (Italy)
Matters, Spaces, Visions, Galerie Building, Mailand (Italy)
2018
Wiggle, a sculpture show, Galerie Greta Meert. Brussels (Belgium)
Here and Elsewhere, Ciudad de México (Mexico)
2016
Kunsthaus NRW, Aachen (Germany)
Lenguaje, L21, Palma de Mallorca, (Spain)
De Statua, KIT Düsseldorf (Germany)
#1, Haus der Kunst, Palermo (Italy)
2014
L’Avventura – Die mit der Liebe spielen, A+B Contemporary Art, Brescia (Italy)
About Skulpture #3, Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (Germany)
Die Grosse Kunstaustellung NRW, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (Germany)
2013
Köln Skulptur 7#. Skulpturenpark Köln (Germany)
Sculpture now-Focus on small pieces, Galerie Ruth Leuchter, Düsseldorf (Germany)
Continent 2000, Kunst im Hafen, Düsseldorf (Germany)
Nur hier, Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (Germany)
2011
Kunstpreis Junger Westen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen (Germany)
Technique et Sentiment, Galerie Greta Meert, Brüssel (Belgium)
Die Große Kunstausstellung NRW, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (Germany)
2010
Drinnen und Draußen Galerie Chert, Berlin (Germany)
«New Talents», Landesvertretung NRW, Berlin (Germany)
2009
Quergeschnitten, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld (Germany)
- Bergische Kunstausstellung, Museum Baden, Solingen (Germany)
Städtischen Galerie, Remscheid (Germany)
2008
Zeitblick. Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (Germany)
Stipendiatenausstellung, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin (Germany)
46 Beard St show, New York (USA)
New Talents 2008, Junge Biennale Köln (Germany)
Markus Lörwald Traum und Lüge, Galerie Mike Karstens, Münster (Germany)
EHF 2010, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin
2007
Raumobjekte Teil VII, Kunstverein, Gelsenkirchen
Fernmelder, Deutsches Haus, NY University, New York (USA)
2006
Flaneurs auf Beton, Institut Français, Düsseldorf (Germany)
Real Presence 3, Museum of 25th May, Belgrad (Serbia)
AWARDS
2020
Artist in Residence Palermo, Goethe-Institut, Institut français, Verein
Düsseldorf Palermo e.V.
2017
Work grant Stiftung Kunstfonds
2008
Audi Art Award for New Talents, Art Cologne
Work grant EHF, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
2007
Artist in residence Düsseldorf – Toulouse, Passagen
Work grant Kunststiftung NRW
2006
Travel grant, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen und der Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtparkasse Düsseldorf
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Collection of contemporary art of the Federal Republic of Germany
Permanent loan to the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Villa la Collina, Cadenabbia, Italy
Collection of NRW, Sammlung des Landes NRW, Aachen-Kornelimünster