Combining concept and materiality, structure and experimentation, Christine’s practice is interstitial. Borrowing from fields of speculative design, fashion, ecology, and communication design, her work explores the tensions of opposing forces through natural materials and digital media. Viewing art and design as methods of unraveling complex systems, Christine uses her practice to posit textures of alternative worlds.
In a time of environmental transformation, what would it look like for a world to embrace its own decay? When the materials of our daily lives change, what new processes emerge? Challenging our relationship to material objects, this project is a series of algae-based bioplastic experiments, embracing the flux of an unsteady world. It explores the systems surrounding these materials, not in their commercial viability, but rather in the textures and rituals of a speculative world that embraces regeneration.
Algae, neither plant nor animal, oxygen-producing and yet remarked for its toxic blooms, confounds standard categorization. As a bioplastic, it can be molded, melted, remolded, and remelted. Capturing these states of transformation, this project is a multimodal speculation, merging the tactility of the biomaterials with digital experiences.
CV Summary
Education
Parsons School of Design, M.F.A. Transdisciplinary Design, New York, NY, 2023
Tufts University, B.S. Quantitative Economics, Studio Art minor, Medford, MA, 2017
Events & Exhibitions
Facilitated Workshop, “Tomorrows: A Workshop for Collective Imagining”, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 2023
Group Exhibition, “Challenging Matter”, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, 2023
Group Exhibition, “Sensory”, Polykhroma, Somerville, MA, 2016
Group Exhibition, “Paris Floue”, Paris, France, 2014
Elizabeth Littlejohn is GlogauAIR resident from July, 2022 to September, 2022
Elizabeth Littlejohn is an artist from Toronto, who has been a resident artists at GlogauAIR. This interview is the result of a conversation between Savanna Fortgang and the artist that took place during September 2022 in the residency.
Meet the Artist
Savanna: What do you do as an artist? What is your process? Why do you create the art that you do – what are overarching themes in your artwork?
Elizabeth: I work in documentary film, augmented reality and photojournalism. I love cities, so I work as a visual researcher to analyze and document them. My particular area of interests are the housing crisis, climate disruption, and the overlooked, historical artifacts within cities.
S: How has your work evolved since being here at GlogauAIR? How has GlogauAIR changed your practice?
E: Being in Berlin has broadened my understanding of international housing issues in cities, and displacement through war and climate disruption. I have studied Berlin since I was a child, so being here, and studying a city with such a complex and multilayered history has been utterly captivating.
S: What’s next for you? Where do you see yourself going as an artist?
E: I would like to continue the project I began at GlogauAIR, and expand it into a short documentary.
S: How did your artist journey begin?
E: I have studied drawing since I was twelve years old, and I have studied in Montréal, New York City, and Toronto. I now teach augmented reality, social innovation, sustainable design, and animation.
S: Do you find art residencies important?
E: Very. Art residencies enable an international, multigenerational community to meet over time in an intentional community, and share artistic strategies, different cultures, and help each other produce art. They are an incubator for brainstorming and supportive networking.
S: What does your art process look like? How does it connect with you and the art you make?
E: I spend many hours on my bicycle, collecting images, footage, and photogrammetry scans to add to my augmented-reality locales, posters, and stickers. Documenting Berlin has informed much of my work, and my time in Berlin has been incredible. It truly is the ‘never-ending city’.
Elizabeth Littlejohn focuses on visualizing the psychogeography of historic buildings in cities. As a Toronto-based augmented reality artist, she creates fantastical facades from recording details of buildings through photogrammetry and audio interviews. As Elizabeth stitches together these stories, she creates these building facades in virtual reality to view their multilayered transformation, then re-incorporates these facades into augmented reality.
Accessed through AR smartphone applications, these virtual facades and interviews can be viewed on buildings in situ as memory palimpsests.
Elizabeth Littlejohn’s project proposes re-creating facades of Berlin buildings, carefully chosen to have a complex history, as fantastical projections and memory palimpsests for a smartphone augmented reality tour, and as part of a screen-based, interactive exhibition at GlogauAIR. This further develops her work for the “The Toronto Island Puzzle Tour” and “Theater Palimpsest”, and develops a Berlin-based augmented reality tour as a cross cultural project between Berlin and Toronto.
CV Summary
Elizabeth is an augmented reality artist and documentary film maker.
In 2018 she directed “Leelah’s Highway’, a broadcast half hour focusing on the loss of trans youth, Leelah Alcorn, and ‘Frolic’s Haunt’, a nine-minute documentary about a queer, accessible haunted house. Both have been shown international film festivals.
In 2022 Elizabeth completed the feature documentary ‘The City Island’ about the Toronto Island’s history of resistance, and the City of Toronto’s Artworx Grant for the ‘Toronto Island Puzzle Tour’.
Recipient of numerous arts councils grants, she has shown at ISEA 2020/2021.
Jan Yongdeok Lim is GlogauAIR resident from July, 2023 to September, 2023
Introducing Jan Yongdeok Lim, an artist who views painting as a form of poetry. For Jan, nothing remains stagnant or taken for granted. Each word, sentence, material, and image becomes a canvas, shaped by the echoes of personal and collective memories.
Meet the Artist
How did your artistic journey begin?
I have been told that my grandfather, who used to be an elementary school teacher, often made drawings and paintings and gave them as gifts to my grandmother. When war clouds gathered, he entered the military academy and died on the battlefield during the Korean War. My father, who never met his father and has only one painting and a photo album left behind, became a metal craft artist. And I became a painter.
I believe everybody is born an artist. While others got interested in other subjects/topics, I kept scribbling, and entered an art school. And since then, I continued making my visual art. In my childhood, I always lost track of time in my father’s library filled with art books of historical painters, such as Hieronymus Bosch to Henri Rousseau. Thanks to that, painting has been a bedrock of reference points for all forms of artistic practice of mine. I was in the fashion field full of affectation, but ultimately, I couldn´t resist embracing the honesty and authenticity of painting, which is analogous to the use of the felt and fat for Joseph Beuys. Now I am painting, and strongly believe it has its own autonomy and temporality (ursprüngliche Zeit).
How would you describe your practice as an artist?
Lately, I’ve come to the realisation how challenging it can be to create even just a single brush stroke.
What inspires you to create your art?
Everything inspires me to create art. Artists take no breaks. Artists are always thinking about, or immersed in their creative process, even when they are not physically working on their art. “The world is full of sounds. We just don’t usually hear them as music,” Ryuichi Sakamoto said. A single word, sentence, color, sound, material, or image, how it calls me and how my/our memories talk to it, becomes a painting. I’ve been working with everything that lies in oscillating boundaries surrounding discordance, disparity, and chaosmos, which defamiliarizes by disassembling and reassembling.
For me reality thus becomes a flexible expense. Nothing stands still or can be taken for granted. From introspection of personal identity to societal identities, it becomes both as a subject and as an attitude within my work.
GlogauAir was my third experience in an artist residency. Differences fascinate us and we then find out some things in common. No matter what encounters, they boil down to me. Nonetheless, moving to a studio in Berlin far from my studio in Utrecht, different light falls, noise, feeling of place, and presence determine the process. I decided to come to GlogauAir to experience this. I am primarily interested in the process. This is something I learned from my great fellow artists in my previous residency in Leipzig. I hoped to meet such an unexpected detour again in GlogauAir as well.
My first residency experience was 7 years ago. One of the biggest benefits of participating in a residency is the opportunity to collaborate closely and mutually influence one another. I was able to consider creating video art thanks to my fellow artists and I did it. The sky of Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland, was overspreading with black clouds. Four fellow photographers and video artists were together with me to support my video. While taking the video, the windstorm suddenly turned dangerously and pushed my boat away to deeper seas. No matter how I rowed, with all my strength, I kept on floating further away. One of the photographers who felt that something was wrong exigently drove a car back -I saw it from the boat drifting-; and a captain in a fishing vessel rescued me shortly after. As soon as I came back to Utrecht, I began to learn how to swim. This time in the boat seemed an eternity. The water was brutal and deep black. If my colleagues hadn’t been there, I would have not been able to make this video, and probably not be able to write this now. The video has become my artist statement, and an attitude that I always remind myself of when I’m painting.
Does the city of Berlin have an influence on your production?
In Berlin, my most recent series “The Remnants” explores what is left behind. The abandoned, the spilled and the discarded – a daily news report, a morning poem, small talk with a stranger in Berlin, a fragment of a train of thought. Strangely, in Kreuzberg where I was staying, there were a lot of things left on the streets, as if they were intentionally placed there. I speculate that because of these interests, I had developed stem from enduring the long pandemic. I´ve captured these things and moments in photos, and attempted to paint them with a concise and swift touch, between abstract and figurative.
As it were, painting I want to make is more of poetry. Nothing stands still or can be taken for granted. Every Single word, sentence, materal, image, how it calls me and how my/your/our memories talk to it becomes a painting.
I look forward to exploring and experimenting how bypasses spiral down to paintings. Differences fascinate us and we then find out somethings in common. No matter what encounters, they boil down to myself. Nonetheless, as moving studios in Berlin far from my studio in Utrecht, different light falls, noise, feeling of place and presence would determine the process. I hope to meet it in GlogauAir. I am primarily interested in process. This is something I learned from my great fellow artists in my previous residency in Leipzig, such as Julia Eichler, Finn Curry, David Benarroch. I hope to meet such an unexpected detour again in GlogauAIR as well. 7 years ago. The sky of Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland, was overspreading with black clouds I had waited. Four fellow residency artists were together with me to support my video. While taking the video, the windstorm changed deadly in a flash and pushed my boat away to deeper seas. No matter how I rowed with all my might, rather I floated further away. One of fellows exigently drove a car back -I saw it from the boat drifiting- and a captain in a fishing vessel rescued me shortly after. As soon as came back to Utrecht from the artist residency, I began learning how to swim. The time in the boat seemed an eternity. The water was brutal black. It must have been, dare I say, far darker. Had colleagues not been there, I would not have been able to made a video and write this now…
Painting
CV Summary
Education
2015 HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Utrecht (NL), Master of Arts in Fine Art
2012 Seoul National University, Seoul (KR), Master of Science in Clothing and Textiles – Aesthetics in Dress Lab.
2007 Kookmin University, Seoul (KR), Bachelor of Fine Arts – Major: Fashion Design [Advanced] / Minor: Painting
Exhibitions / Performances / Researches
2022 ‘The Second Hands’, MNAC, Bucharest (RO), performer / researcher
2020 ‘Boven de bank’, Gallery Logman, Utrecht (NL), group
2018 ‘Spoor’, Pilotenkueche, Leipzig (DE), group
2018 ‘Speech Bubble’, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig (DE), group
2018 ‘Rutschbahn’, Krudebude, Leipzig (DE), group
2018 ‘I accept the cookies’, Kunstraumpingpong, Leipzig (DE), group
2018 ‘This must be the Pacific Place’, Gallery Vriend van Bavink, Amsterdam (NL), group
2018 ‘Disclosed #13: HONOLULU’, Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam (NL), performer
2017 ‘Draaiweg 51 Open Studio’, SWK030, Utrecht (NL), group
2017 ‘The Final Report Presentation’, The Creative Centre HERE, Stöðvarfjörður (IS), group
2017 ‘To Seminar : Sleeper’, BAK basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (NL), performer/ researcher
Karen Hendrickx is GlogauAIR resident from July, 2023 to September, 2023
Karen Hendrickx, is a visual artist based in Antwerp, Belgium. Since 2017, she has delved into a captivating series exploring the beauty of dance and movement. Together with choreographer Justine Copette, Karen crafted “Sketches of Emotion,” a performance merging dance and visual art. Expression is at the core of Karen’s work. Her artistic process blurs the line between abstraction and figuration.
Meet the Artist
How did your artistic journey begin?
There is not really a beginning. I have always been drawing and painting even since I was a child. I can’t remember a life without art. It is like it has always been there and it will always be there. It is a way of living for me, painting and drawing. When I was younger, I remember a lot of children playing outside. Instead of being outside I created my own atelier and I think I spent the whole summer there.
How would you describe your practice as an artist?
Painting is for me a real expression of my feelings. It’s a real feeling. I really feel that I need to express something. So, my emotions are in my paintings and in my drawings. It is about survival and the paintings are my personal way to survive.
What inspires you to create your art?
It’s my way of expressing my emotions, and not an inspiration that comes first to me and then I will start painting. I think there is a real need inside me.
What influenced your decision to come to GlogauAIR ?
I found out about the space during the corona time. But then it was complicated with corona but afterwards I was still thinking, okay, now I’m up to go to a residency. And then I thought again about GlogauAIR and I thought about Berlin. Berlin is a great city to be in. So, I knew the space already and then it felt like it was meant to be.
Does the city of Berlin have an influence on your production?
I can see the dark feeling of the city. It’s still present and it’s really connected to my feelings. That’s why the city has helped me, because I feel that I’m really touched by Berlin. And then I started thinking about the history and it’s not the nicest time in history, but there are so many lives in the city, and I almost cry when I see parts of the wall, I even didn’t exist in that period. But I can feel the pain of the people living in this time and how they dealt with it. Also, with the impact of the Second World War of course. And then it makes the feeling stronger to start painting and express it. So, in this way I would say yes.
Karen Hendrickx is a visual artist who lives and works in Antwerp/Belgium. Since 2017 she has been working on a series on dance and movement for which she has created the performance Sketches of Emotion together with the Belgian choreographer and dancer Justine Copette of JC Choreography. This performance aims to be a mix between dance and visual art, inviting the audience to come and see how a dance performance is transformed into a timeless work of art.
Expression is always central to her work. She always try to intensify her subject, instead of literally mirroring it. While working Karen always try to look for the boundary between the abstract and the figurative. Her choice of materials is very diverse, ranging from charcoal, chalk, Chinese ink, bistre, acrylic to oil paint. While working, the work is constantly changing and every previous track contributes to the end result. In this way Karen try to search for the story that can be told through a line, composition, color shade, atmosphere, …Karen also like to work in an investigative, experimental way, where she like to try out other disciplines.
During my residency, I will work on my dance and movement series, where I will look for the dance movement in the city of Berlin. I want to be inspired by the rhythm of the city and the traces left behind through its history. Among other things I want to look for the rhythm, in the architectural lines and surfaces, in the movements of the people who comes and go, in the sound that the city produce,… I want to translate all this into lyrical abstract works.
In addition to my studio work, I will also collaborate with the Belgian choreographer and dancer Justine Copette on an adapted version of our performance Sketches of Emotion. The intention is to integrate this performance into the project that I want to develop.
CV Summary
Education
June 2017 : Graduated in the specialization degree drawing of the part-time art education at the Royal Academy of Antwerp.
June 2011 : Graduated in the higher degree of painting from the part-time art education at the Sint Lucas academy in Kapellen.
June 2006 : Graduated in art history at the art historical institute of Antwerp
Exhibitions
August 2022 Exhibition. and performance at Tour à Plomb, Brussels
July 2022 Exhibition an Performance in Bruges
May 2022 Exhibition and performance at VZW Fameus, Antwerp.
April 2022 Exhibition and performance at VZW Ensemble, Ghent.
November 2021 Exhibition and performance at Bal D’Art gallery, Brussels
September 2021 : Exhibition and performance at ’t Werkhuys, Antwerp
Exhibition during We.Art.XL, Elsene
July – September 2021 : Exhibition in Maison La Poste / Tour and Taxis and Gare Maritime, Brussels
March 2021 : Selected for Act-Exhibition, Brussels
January 2020 : Group exhibition in galerie Verbeeck-Van Dyck , Antwerp
September 2018 : Open studio days: Studio Start, Antwerp
April 2015 : Solo exhibition in Tracé culture station, Ekeren/Antwerp
Art competitions
August 2021 : Shortlist of the Visual Art Open 2021 UK & International Emerging Artists Awards
January 2021 finalist of the 10th “All women” Art Exhibition
Magdaléna Ševčík is GlogauAIR resident from April, 2023 to June, 2023 and from July, 2023 to September, 2023
Meet Magdaléna Ševčík, a professional abstract painter, whose paintings are a vivid blend of playfulness and boldness. The canvases showcase intricate color interplay as backgrounds, contrasted by precise geometric lines in the foreground. These foreground motifs either negate or harmonize with the backdrop.
Meet the Artist
How did your artistic journey begin?
I came from an artistic family, so I have been in touch with art ever since I was a kid. But my journey to pursue it professionally was far more complicated. At first, I focused on academic research instead of creating art. I decided to become an artist only in my late 20s. Before finishing my Master’s I spent some time in Finland, studying Fine Arts. It was there under the Aurora Borealis when I realised that I enjoy creating art more than just writing about it. So I slowly began to develop my own artistic language and experiment with different styles and techniques.
A milestone for me came almost seven years ago when I started painting abstractly. My focus shifted to colours and putting them in contrast with straight geometric lines.
How would you describe your practice as an artist?
My art practice is filled with contrasts, layers, hidden games, and symbolism. When I think of it, there is always this contrast between intuitive and rational approaches being mirrored in the artwork itself. In many ways it’s my practice connected to my personality – slightly chaotic, temperamental, and anxious, to gain at least some control over the chaos.
I always start with the colours in the background. I choose a specific set and explore the possibilities of how these colours mix, blend… how they interact together. At first, they are raw, by layering them I create some kind of organised chaos. It often looks like a burst of energy coming out of me, vivid and fluid clouds. I enjoy this non-specificity. Then I continue with the geometric shapes in the foreground. I use them to add another layer. Not only visually, but also as symbols of hidden meanings and agenda that I often have within the series. To me, they are these rational “dots” that are piercing the clouds and adding context. To me colours are like feelings and shapes are like words. Only together they create visual sentences. Together they have a meaning.
What inspires you to create your art?
My art is tightly connected to my personality. To me, art is like living. I create art exactly as I live my life – with curiosity and grit. Through art, I process my life experience. So to answer your question: I don’t have any inspiration per se. I analyse what’s happening around me and within me. Then I ask questions on canvas. Sometimes my focus goes inwards. I am fascinated by the human mind. Sometimes I turn to natural sciences and uncover something bigger. And sometimes I just feel something so strongly that it has to get out…
For example, here at GlogauAIR, I was exploring memory, which has always been a very personal topic for me. Mostly due to my grandmother’s Alzheimer’s disease. It is a terrible thing to realise that with this disease you die twice. At first, whoever you are dies, because your personality is tightly connected to your memories. All your experience is suddenly somewhere where you can’t access it any longer. Only after that does your physical shell die. It is both fascinating and terrible to see someone so lost and empty.
That is why I started using white. I use it often both in background and shapes. To me it is a symbol of this loss otherwise it can be seen both as empty and full. All the memories are there, but where? There is this thing of maybe trying to capture my memories as much as I can, for as long as I can. I find it fascinating to encapsulate my own experiences on canvas and come back to them after a while and see them exactly as when I was painting them.
What influenced your decision to come to GlogauAIR?
It´s a lot factors. I’ve been here a few times before my residency and it has always been quite an interesting visit. I like the vibe of the city, its variety, and possibilities and… stubbornness. It is almost like a living thing. Sometimes Berlin wants you and embraces you, sometimes you feel rejected. I wanted to stay longer and have a complex experience. Uncover its hidden layers. Also my friends was here at GlogauAIR and they say it was nice.
Does the city of Berlin have an influence on your production?
It has no effect on the visuals of my latest series. But (subconsciously) it is definitely giving me more freedom to explore. I feel freer to be explorative and creative. There are no limits here. Everything is possible. I love the fact that the scene here is so wide and diverse. I think it’s been pushing me to work harder.
Magdaléna Ševčík is a professional abstract painter. She has exhibited her work in Czechia, Slovakia, Netherlands and the UK and is one of the most prominent representatives of young Czech abstract painting.
Her paintings are both playful and bold. While the background of the artworks is a vague, sophisticated colorplay, the foreground consists of strict geometric lines. Motifs in the foreground do either negate or support the background.
She is fascinated by the human mind – anxiety, memory, and quantum interconnection. She creates unique abstract universes filled with thoughts, feelings and colors.
I intend to create a memory capsule and save my Berlin memories on canvas, preserving them with colors. Their uniqueness and fluidity.
The goal of my residency is to create a series of large-format (3D) paintings that respond to my experience and impression of Berlin. I aim to create a dialogue with the audience. I want to arouse its feelings and desires to interpret my memories within their life narratives. Which topics do they pay attention to? Which memory resonates with them the most and why?
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds (ZF) in making this residency possible for me.
Painting
CV Summary
2022 Sotheby’s realty, solo exhibition, Prague, CZ
2021 STARÁ ČISTÍRNA GALLERY, Solo Maximal Entropy, Prague, CZ
2020 Art Week Rotterdam at VICTORYART Gallery, Pop-up exhibition, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2019 INDIGES GALLERY, Solo exhibition “No End Or Beginning”, Brno, CZ
2018 DANIEL RAPHAEL GALLERY, Group exhibition “Less is More”, London, UK
2018 NULTÁ GENERACE, Group exhibition of young Czech emerging artists, Jihlava, CZ
2018 Brno Art Jam 2018, CZ
2017 THE CULT HOUSE, Creative Debuts, exhibition “Abstractive”, London, UK
2017 KAVÁRNA CO HLEDÁ JMÉNO, Solo exhibition “Neither now nor ever”, Prague, Czech republic
2017 BLACK BOX, Solo exhibition “Colliding Planets”, Brno, Czech republic
2017 MINI ART GALLERY, Solo exhibition “Colliding Planets”, Bratislava, Slovakia
2017 DOT CONTEMPORARY “Closing Hearts”, Bratislava, Slovakia
2016 DOT CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Group exhibition “Until Now”, Bratislava, Slovakia
2016 KULTURÁRIUM CAFE , Solo exhibition “Trapped”, Brno, Czech republic
Born in 1991 in Toulouse (FR). Lives and works in Paris since 2015.
Artist with an insatiable curiosity, Milan Sanka’s work is rooted in his Martinican and Spanish origins, giving life to satirical, offbeat and even serious scenes from an obscured topicality.
As part of the figuration narrative movement, the artist depicts his environment with a concern for synthesis that allows the message of his work to be grasped at a glance. The characters drawn in white stand out against their black background to reveal a scene with a reduced palette, as if to leave clues without cluttering up the message to be delivered.
The importance of communicating is reflected in his masked characters, whose anonymity gives them a universal appeal. Each of us can recognise ourselves, question ourselves and observe the world around us.
The night is a time when we can take stock of what we like, dislike and worry about. It’s a very important time, because it allows us to readjust during the day what doesn’t make us happy.
It is both mysterious and charged with a certain magic. Night attracts, intrigues and sometimes frightens. It’s a time when time seems to slow down and shadows gradually envelop the world. When the hustle and bustle of the day gives way to calm and silence. It’s also a time when opposites meet and mingle: the tranquility of sleep and the dreams of some, alongside the euphoria of festivity, work, artistic creation and the anxieties of others.
Painting
CV Summary
Solo shows
11 May – 30 June 2023 “31 points de suture” Samba Résille, Toulouse
18 February 2023 Openstudio Montreuil
October/December 2021 “Room Twenty-Five” End of residency exhibition the hotel French Theory, Paris
21 November 2019 “CHICO” End of residency exhibition 59 Rivoli, Paris
Group shows
8 April 2023 Groupshow organized by La Douce at Artplex, Marseille
May 2021 “BERLIN93” Mural for the Group show organized by Berlin93 La Courneuve
8 – 11 October 2020 “Prix Art Canister ” Group show organized by Don Papa at Gallery Joseph, Paris
Rashid Kulbatyrov paints impressionist scenes of home land and his travels that pays homage to the traditions and customs of being part of the Great Steppe, seen through a modern lens. Rashid challenges himself to experiment with various styles and techniques—expressiveness, bright colors, and movement appearing most evident. His multicultural exposure gives him limitless inspiration, gathering insight from everywhere he visits and everyone he meets.
Formulations of different forms and color combinations make up his compositions. Rashid produces his work with relaxed but decisive brush strokes, sometimes with the addition of a palette knife. Arising a deep love for his roots, he aims to share the sacredness and beauty of his culture. He enjoys traveling to other countries with his family on creative pauses to further help him gather new creative ideas.
GlogauAIR Project
I am an artist hailing from the vast landscapes of Kazakhstan, where the Great Steppe and mountain villages shape a unique way of life. Immersed in the creative process, I go beyond the brush and paint with my soul, seeking to capture the essence of my heritage. They say the human heart carries genetic memory, and within me, the blood of nomadic ancestors fuels a passionate creative force. My artworks tell stories of the tranquil and unhurried rhythm of steppe dwellers’ lives.
In my paintings, you will find the unmistakable melody of the Dombra, mingling with the whispers of the wind, the murmurs of mountain rivers, and the inviting smoke rising from hospitable hearths. Cozy yurts nestle beneath the vast blue sky, as generations seamlessly pass on the wisdom of traditions and ways of life. Each stroke of my brush echoes the serenity and harmony of the steppe.
Inspiration knows no boundaries for me; it arises from every place I have visited, the beauty of nature, the diverse tapestry of people, and the fresh waves of thought from the young generation. These themes pervade my works, as I strive to introduce myself as an emerging artist to a global audience. Join me on a visual journey that celebrates the rich tapestry of Kazakh culture and invites you to explore the timeless landscapes of the Great Steppe.
Painting
CV Summary
EDUCATION
1986 | Artist, Aktobe Art School
1995 | Artist-designer, Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abay
SOLO SHOWS
2001 | Central museum exhibition, Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan
2002 | Mangystau Regional Museum of Local History, Aktau, Kazakhstan
2003 | Exhibition in House of Culture named after Abay, Aktau, Kazakhstan
2003 | Regional exhibition in Central museum, Aktobe, Kazakhstan
2004 | Personal exhibition, Tribuna Art gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2005 | Caspian sea – Friendship, Mangystau Regional Museum of Local History, Kazakhstan
2006 | Art Navat Art gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2007 | «Cultural days in Mangystau», Central Park, Astana, Kazakhstan
2009 | «City nocturne» Ou Art gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2010 | «Spring tide», Central exhibition hall, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2011 | «Salem, Aziada», Oner Art gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Personally, I’ve always been particularly drawn to translucent materials and aesthetics—glass, mesh, ice, tracing paper, clouds, mist. These materials have always felt related to feelings of fluidity, vagueness, obfuscation, and gentleness, feelings I ascribe to different and malleable ways of thinking about gender, desire, and the body.
Ethereal, tender and wonder-filled combinations of varied materials become inquiries into political narrative. Using methods that include hot glass techniques, glass kiln-casting, pouring and assemblage—leakages reveal themselves as material investigations. The formlessness that refuses to take shape, to behave as an object.
A sculptural installation will be developed on-site during the residency at GlogauAIR, an outcome which will be process-driven, developing with research and space in mind. I will explore new mediums, including painting.
Installation and Sculpture
CV Summary
Education
2021 Bachelor of Contemporary Art, University of South Australia, Australia
2009 Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Adelaide, Australia
2007 Bachelor of Design Studies, University of Adelaide, Australia
2022 I think about all kinds of borders, and how surely they all break down with time, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2022 desiring-production, Cement Fondu, Sydney, Australia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Reading into Things, curated by Samuel Kirby, Naomi Segal and Alexander Tanazefti, Pari Ari, Sydney, Australia
2021 Live Dreams: Portal, Performance Space, Liveworks Festival 2021, curated by Emma Webb (Vitalstatistix) online and Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia
2021 Riverbeds, collaboration with Ena Grozdanic, FELTspace ARI, Adelaide, Australia
2021 Politics of Memory, SASA Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2021 Testing Nights: May, Testing Grounds, Melbourne, Australia
2020 Artists Making Futures: Bushfire Appeal, SA Arts for a Cause, Holy Rollers Gallery, Adelaide, Aust.
Residencies and Mentorships
2023 Residency at GlogauAIR, Berlín, Germany
2021 Testing Grounds Creative Development Program, Residency and Mentorship with Erin Milne, Producer and Curator of Bureau of Works, Testing Grounds, Melbourne, Australia
Publications
2023 Reading into Things, Memo Review, Melbourne, March Memo Review
2022 New Glass Review 42, Corning Museum of Glass, New York, September
2022 Fuse Glass Prize catalogue essay, Eva Czernis-Ryl, The Jam Factory, Adelaide, May
2022 Catalogue essay, Josie Dillon, Cement Fondu, Sydney, February
2020 – 2022 Co-director at FELTspace artist-run gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2017 – 2022 Sessional Lecturer in Master of Landscape Architecture courses, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Adelaide, Australia
Sophie Gabrielle is GlogauAIR resident from July, 2023 to September, 2023
Sophie Gabrielle is a contemporary photographer and curator based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). Intrigued by the convergence of photography, memory, and myth-making, Sophie utilizes archives, organic matter, and portraiture to delve into the realm of the unseen. Through their work, they create a space where past and present coexist, fostering a dialogue on personal and historical themes.
Meet the Artist
How did your artistic journey begin?
Classic question. I think I have always been an artistic kid. I was a musician when I was younger and a dancer but then I really got into visual arts, especially photography. When I was about 14 years old, a friend of mine had bought one of those Lumography fisheye cameras, like the plastic cameras, and I borrowed it from him to the point that I still have that camera. I’ve never returned it. And then I just kept photographing when I was 11 or 12 years old in school. I was making zines, still playing music, but photography was the thing that I just kept doing and then I eventually got hired to work as a club photographer from a friend who was running an indie dance night because I was always taking photos anyway so he said you may as well get paid for it and that’s kind of how it happened and I started getting paid from more jobs doing that in Canberra where I’m from, the ACT, Australian Capital Territory. I was thinking of what to do for university, and so I decided to study photography and move to Melbourne as a pathway to get out of Canberra, because it’s a very tiny city.
How would you describe your practice as an artist?
For me, I’m definitely a research-based artist. I have a lot of projects always floating around in the back of my mind, but I definitely find a topic and then I base most of my photographs on the research from that topic. Whether that be in mythology or folklore. I really love reading about scientific art, scientific artists and research, because the medium of photography is so interesting. It’s kind of like capturing real life, but it’s completely false at the same time. So when I first really started creating solid bodies of work, I was working with a series on memory and how memory is fallible and it changes but we use photographs as a symbol of what happened and the connections to the past even though the photograph is a highly contextualised and curated event of that moment which is quite fascinating. I think that’s where it comes from. I feel that in my arts practice, I’ve always been a bit of a goth and a bit of an emo, which sort of leads into these darker spaces and I like creating quite poetic yet eerie images. I feel like there’s something between that push and pull of really enjoying what an image looks like, but feeling quite uncomfortable at the same time so I like walking that bridge between the two.
What inspires you to create your art?
I guess I was touching on that subject a little bit, science and folklore. I think inspiration wise I feel like as an artist there is always this need to create. I think that might be like the joy and the curse of the artist, that it doesn’t matter if you finished a project you still need to be creating another one. I don’t think we’re ever truly satisfied in that event, that’s something that I’ve found for myself as an artist, constantly looking for the next thing which is quite good, it means that I’ll forever be working, but I wonder when I’ll be satisfied.
What influenced your decision to come to GlogauAIR
Mine’s quite funny I think. In 2019 I had a show in Frankfurt. I was represented by a gallery called Foam in Amsterdam. They do a Foam talent call. I was the first Australian to be picked. I was meant to move to Amsterdam, or to the Netherlands in 2020, but the world ended. I was here in Berlin for Art Week, literally this time four years ago, and we were walking past GlogauAIR and it was the open studios and we thought that it was a huge party, a huge house party, and we were like what the fuck? So we went inside and realised it was an art gallery and went all out, saw every room and I was super inspired and thought, wow, this is classic, crazy Berlin. And then in 2020, I was on the ARRI, Artists in Residence website, and it popped up as an open call. I thought, perfect, and remembered that I’d been here before. And so that was my initial response. Then I started talking to other people who had lived in Berlin and also other artists in Australia about it and it had a good reputation so I thought it’d be a great way to make work. I’ve done a few other residencies and I think that especially in your daily life, in my daily life, I really struggle to make time for my art. I really enjoy it when I do, but when you’re working and you’ve got other commitments, just like life in general, I feel like these short bursts, like three months of intense working is really good for me, especially to restart my thinking and my practice.
Does the city of Berlin have an influence on your production?
I think so. I think for me, especially living in Narm, Melbourne, Australia, it’s a big city but it’s nothing compared to Berlin. Being an Australian you feel remote, sometimes from everyone, and there is a saying in the art scene that we are a little bit behind on things there. Just like more the art being produced I guess it’s a bit slower there’s not as much, I mean there is an excellent art scene but I think here there’s a lot more to see, there’s also a lot more from emerging artists to established artists and all in between. I think here there’s a lot more things being produced by everyone and anyone, so it feels more obtainable here.
Sophie Gabrielle is a Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) based contemporary photographer and curator. Interested in the intersection between photography, memory and myth-making, Sophie uses archive, organic matter and portraiture to investigate the world of the unseen and create space in which the past and present co-exist. With research as a core part of their practice, Sophie’s work uses the connotation of photography to create an open dialogue on themes that have a personal connection to the artist and a broader perspective on the history of the subject.
Sophie Gabrielle lives and works on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, and pays their deepest respects to Elders past and present and acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded.
During the three months at GlogauAIR, Sophie intends to explore the connection of mycelium and human connection in a social and historical context. Interested in the organisms power of transformative inspiration and deep-time sense of belonging, this new work intends to capture the feminine knowledge of the fungi. In Western society structures, historically women have been custodians of ecological knowledge through foraging practices. However, many voices were silenced from formal participation in Science and were oen dangerously cast aside as ‘witchcra’. This project aims to reclaim this space using the fruiting bodies of the mycelium cultivated at GlogauAIR through archive images of male mycologists.
Photography
CV Summary
Sophie Gabrielle is a Naarm-based contemporary photographer and curator. Their work uses archive and the human body to investigate the connection between photography, history, memory and psychology. Their work has been exhibited in Australia, Malaysia, The Netherlands, France, Germany, South Korea, the USA and the UK. Notable commissions and collaborations of Sophie’s work are The New Yorker -Fiction Issue, July 2021, cover art for The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra’s Die Seejungfrau (The Little Mermaid, 2020) and Uk musician Seabuckthron’s album Through a vulnerable occur was produced as a companion piece to the Ikki Selects photobook by the same name containing a curated selection of Sophie’s work. They are a Foam Talent recipient (2018) and a finalist for the Lensculture Emerging Talent Awards (2016).
They are also a board member of Good Moon Rising, a non-profit creative collective that creates safe spaces for gender-diverse artists and musicians to be celebrated in Melbourne. They have obtained a Masters in Arts Management from RMIT focussing on curation and community engagement within galleries and a Bachelor of Photography majoring in Fine Art.
Awards
2018: Lensculture Fine Art Semi-Finalist
2018: Foam Fotografia Emerging Talent Award
2017: Center Of Contemporary Photography – Most Powerful Image – Worry For The Fruit The Birds Won’t Eat
2017: Best Composition – Emerging Artists – Australian Catholic University
2016: Lensculture Emerging Talent finalist
2016: Center Of Contemporary Photography – Best Fashion Image
2015: Greatest Achievement in Fine Art Major – Photography Studies College
Exhibitions
2022: máthair mhór, Solo exhibitio, Edge Galleries, Maldon, Australia
2021: Worry for the fruit the birds won’t eat solo exhibition, Scope Gallery, Hannover Germany.
2020: The Things I Tell You Will Not Be Wrong Group exhibition, Scope Gallery, Hannover Germany.
2020: Beyond the cosmos emerging artist feature Photo Basel, Switzerland represented by Galerie &co119
Carlotta Proietto is GlogauAIR resident from July, 2023 to September, 2023
Meet Carlotta Proietto, an artist who sheds light on society’s challenges. She delves into topics like immigration, prostitution, and morality, driven by deep emotional connection and thorough research.
Meet the Artist
Carlotta’s art knows no bounds as she explores various techniques to convey a wide range of feelings. Her latest project addresses a deeply personal issue: sexual violence and stress disorder.
Picture this: a dark room with wet cloth rising and falling, creating an immersive experience. Visitors crawl through a trapdoor, lying on the floor as the damp fabric envelops them, symbolizing the weight of the subject.
Society and its problems are at the centre of my artistic practice. the topics I deal with: immigration and prostitution,morality are some of the main themes. I try to live deeply when I do research, because I believe it is essential for an artist to be emotionally and physically involved when representing these themes.
My works are different from each other because I have always asked myself: why rely on one technique? Why do there have to be limits? More techniques allow me to represent a wider range of feelings and topics.
I would like to deal with a subject that is very close to me: sexual violence and stress disorder.
The work will be a dark room with an elastic cloth soaked in water that will rise and fall thanks to mechanisms, thus covering the entire space of the room.
The spectator, who will have to crawl through a cramped entrance into a trapdoor covered with wet fabric, will have to lie on the floor and, due to the darkness, will not fully comprehend the depth of the room until the cloth is pressed over his body.
