THE ARTISTS | Anne Nissen, Hannover

Anne Nissen

Anne Nissen, born in 1966 in Flensburg, studied Liberal Arts in Stuttgart and Hannover. She has also received many international study grants and attends international Master Classes. Anne Nissen lives and works in Hannover.

Anne Nissens work begins with plastic and graphic works: surreal pencil drawings, grotesque plastic works and installations are her first works. For two centruries she has been working intensively with video equipment. She has created large video installations as well as mono and polychrome video prints which deal with the subject of human life phases: metamorphosis and transformation, experiences and memories between birth and death.

THE ARTISTS | Lukáš Lerch, Ostrov nad Ohři

Lukáš Lerch

 

Lukáš Lerch was born in 1987 and grew up during the time of unrest between two systems. This shows itself in his artistic work. He completed studies in Psychology and Art Education at the Western Bohemian University in Pilsen. Lukáš Lerch lives and works as an Art Educator for people of various ages in Ostrov nad Ohři.

 

 

For the “Water Games”, the artist has submitted an installation which incorporates ponds located in different places just outside Wunsiedel.

He creates an unnatural barrier in the observer’s field of vision that the observer readily accepts. Reflections echo cyclic interlacing. Water and materialism create an area of tension. The observer becomes involved in the piece just as does the surrounding landscape.

THE ARTISTS | Rainer Fest, Leipzig

Rainer Fest

 

Rainer Fest, born in 1953, studied at the Jurva School of Arts and Crafts in Finland from 1975 to 1981. He also studied in Germany and in Spain. His sculptures have been displayed in international exhibitions since 1986 and are included in both public and private collections.  Many of his works can be viewed in public spaces. His artistic body of work has received many grants both in Germany and abroad.

The central theme of Rainer Fest’s work is the bi-lateral visualisation of objects and the revelation of a perspective that shows these two versions as parts of a whole.

For Rainer Fest it is not only aesthetics that matter, but also a philosophical perspective that should almost offer itself to an attentive viewer. The significance of water becomes then particularly important. “Connection” is a central theme that runs through Fest’s art.

He works primiarily with things that cannot come together, he seeks the space between contradictions, the form of things that are invisible, hidden oneness, such as negative and positive, material and spiritual, here and beyond, life and death.

The observer is invited to investigate individual elements and to experience associations among them that would most likely be overlooked and ignored.

THE ARTISTS | Richard Klein-Hollerbach, Bretzfeld

Richard Klein Hollerbach

 

Richard Klein-Hollerbach has always been fascinated by water. After studying Chemistry and Biology in Munich and Freiburg, Richard Klein-Hollerbach earned his PhD in Biology. Since 1995, he has been busy with artistic projects: photographic works, objects associated with water, and artistic installations.

Richard Klein-Hollerbach llives and works in Bretzfeld.

Water is the subject of Richard Klein-Hollerbach’s art. The most significant source of inspiration for him is water in its natural environment. He emphasises essential aspects of water in his works and makes water an experience for all the senses. He creates special constructions that make it possible for flowing water to create images of movement unique to water.

Close-up photos of direct encounters with water in nature, sometimes with a little influence from the artist, allow for unexpected glimpses into the mysterious world of water.

THE ARTISTS | Jeff Beer, Gumpen

Jeff Beer (Foto: Wolfgang Zielonkowski)

 

Jeff Beer, born in 1952 in Mitterteich in the Upper Palatinate region, studied Composition, Percussion instruments and Piano at the College for Music in Würzburg. After his examinations and Master Class, he studied in Paris and in New York. Jeff Beer’s works have won numerous awards, including a double stipend from the German National Academic Foundation, the Bavarian State Award for Music and Visual Arts, and an award from the Xaver Fuhr Foundation in Regensburg.

Jeff Beer first concentrated on painting. Music followed soon afterwards. His expression pallet was thus expanded, and led to a unique, complex body of work that spans music, painting, drawing, wood sculpting, photography and language. This body constantly redefines itself and often manifests itself in cyclic complexes. The most intriguing aspects of Beers multi-facetedness could include his variety, the cross-pollination of his methods and experiences, his multi-media perspective that leads to surprising results, refreshing openings, cross-associations and experiences.

He has been working with the topic of water for many years. His studio is on the Waldnaab River, to which he has developed a special relationship. He expresses this in his drawings and texts, but particularly in his photography, with the continuous observation of living and perception spaces.

THE ARTISTS | Hannes Neubauer, Leipzig

Hannes Neubauer

 

Hannes Neubauer, born in 1979 in Marktredwitz, has been travelling internationally as a steel sculptor for many years. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Design at the College for Recognized Sciences and Arts in Hildesheim and completed a master’s program titled “Art in public places and new artistic strategies” (MfA) at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and in Belo Horizonte in Brazil.

He also often works abroad: in 2017 he was part of numerous sea rescues on the coast of Libya. He is distinguished as the “Kultur- und Kreativpilot Deutschland 2011.”

Water holds a special meaning for Hanne Neubauer, less in a artistic, poetic way, but more from a socio-political perspective, something real and essential. A video made during his sea rescue assignment at the Libyan coast can be seen as an installation and could give the viewer goosebumps.

THE ARTISTS | Florian Meier, Creußen

Florian Meier

 

Born in 1990 in Weiden, Florian Meier trained as a product designer in Selb from 2009 – 2013. He then began a career as an independent artist. After an interlude in Leipzig, he moved to Creußen, where he began training as a carpenter. Florian Meier lives and works in Creußen.

Inspired by graffiti art, Florian first combines letters and shapes with strong contrasts, then sprays walls with unintelligible and almost illegible writing.

In the past, he found the aesthetics of form and color appealing, the contrast of dirtiness and tidiness, black and white. That was a long time ago, yet his love for painting remains. Aspects such as expression, composition and color choice have since come to the forefront. Whether on canvas or on a façade, for Meier it is red, blue and yellow.

THE ARTISTS | Ilse Dreher, Dreieich

Ilse Dreher

 

Ilse Dreher, born in 1950 in Dreieichenhain, is an independent artist, photographer, designer and author of theatrical works. She completed studies in Photography at the School of Photography in Hamburg Rotherbaum and studied at the College of Design in Offenbach/Main. Ilse Dreher lives and works in Dreieichenhain.

 

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Ilse Dreher has dealt with the idea of water. All different states of water show up in Ilse Dreher’s art like they do in all the different light settings water can be observed in. It is water’s fluidity, its unfixed nature, its flow, the way it is always changing, its perpetual transformation that inpires and motivates her. This is why she incoporates air, water, light and earth into her work. Dreher brings together both the archaic and the anarchic.

The artist both plays and allows one to play, be it through overdimensional photographs, collages or installations in the wild outdoors, she uses whatever she needs to get a certain expression across. In Wunsiedel she has two installations on display.

THE ARTISTS | Roman Woerndl, Berg

Roman Woerndl

 

Roman Woerndl, born in 1957 in Prien am Chiemsee, studied Architecture at Rosenheim College in 1986. From then, he worked as an independent sculptor in Munich. 2010/11 and 2012/13 he was an Artist in Residence in Yogayakarta in Indonesia. Roman Woerndl lives and works in Berg am Starnberger See.

 

Roman Woerndl’s sculptures often reflect dissonance with the landscape from which they originate: a hill at the east bank of the Starnberger Lake. His works seem to force the landscape into being depicted by geometric patterns. The observer seems to get the impression that the way we see nature is not “natural” but rather a product of culture.

Roman Woerndl’s installations and video projects are an expression of his theoretical grappling with topics such as the hubris of human beings.

The artist has two video installations on display in Wunsiedel as well as a kinetic object.