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Berlin Exhibition “Vorwaerts!” on Socialism & Art at Kunstraum Richard Sorge May 2010, Berlin art space “Kunstraum Richard Sorge” presents the “Vorwärts“ exhibition on Socialism, viewing it from artistic, sexual and sociological angles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE KRS - May 01, 2010 – The participating artists -Shepard Fairey, Gert-Jan Akerboom , Peeter Allik , Art-Erhaltung, Heimatlose Volkskunst, Musk Ming, Jürgen Wittdorf - stem from the Netherlands, USA, both historical sides of Germany, former involuntarily communist country Estonia, and exiles from Peru and China
Shepard Fairey manages a unique balance of the political, counter-cultural and commercial, freely bending and deconstructing the aesthetics of propaganda and liberation. His oeuvre amounts to a rich visual research into the history of ideology, either exposing its cynicism, or re-evaluating the validity of ideals along the way
The masterful linocuts and paintings of Estonian artist Peeter Allik explore Europe's traditional values, murderous political history and not quite so innocent folklore
Berlin-based Chinese artist Musk Ming’s paintings and drawings cunningly appropriate a saccharine Maoist illustration style to unearth China’s bountiful GLTBQ history
The nationalist and totalitarian sites and symbols of commemoration are some of the more sinister objects and themes that inspire Dutch artist in Berlin Gert-Jan Akerboom 's highly detailed ink drawings
Within the confines of the early 1960s government-controlled art scene of the GDR, Jürgen Wittdorf was miraculously able to publicly develop a historically unique group of homoerotic socialist woodblock prints and linocuts, proving either the naivety or open-mindedness of the state patrons and audiences of the time
The exiled South-American installation artist who has been working for nearly two decades under the label “Heimatlose Volkskunst,” uses the civilisational waste (often of GDR origin) found in the streets and abandoned buildings of Berlin, fusing it with the relics and symbols of other ideologies and religions
Art-Erhaltung, is an agglomerate of creative minds keenly interested in presenting artworks with a conceptual and philanthropic outlook. They encourage a philosophical discourse that questions the art world's unwritten conventions
Art space “Kunstraum Richard Sorge,” located in the East-Berlin Friedrichshain district built after WWII in a heroic Russian kitsch style, is named after the communist spy (Ian Fleming’s model for James Bond) that changed the course of WWII
From its bountiful space situated in a vast, street-art covered romantically crumbling historic Berlin brewery that hosts many art spaces, Kunstraum Richard Sorge reaches a young, and international audience, but adventurous discerning art lovers as well
Its exhibitions focus on confrontational crafts, club/vj/kinetic art, GLBTQ art and subcultures. Like its namesake, the initiative independently works from a marginal, yet cosmopolitan position to ultimately save the world
The industrial buildings of the former George Patzenhofer brewery on Landsberger Allee, built in 1877, became a home for international artists and Studio spaces after it closed as a brewery in 1990. The galleries Styx and Kunstraum Richard Sorge have already made creative spaces there, exhibiting on a regular basis in this historic and impressive building. With the opening of the Gallery G11 on the 3rd floor the brewery, considered today as an oasis for friends of the arts, has won yet another attractive tenant. The impressive area of Friedrichshöhe (the brewery area) can be reached in approx. 10 minutes by Tram from Berlin – Alexanderplatz
(Press release)
Artists
Shepard Fairey , Gert-Jan Akerboom , Peeter Allik , Art-Erhaltung, Heimatlose Volkskunst, Musk Ming, Jürgen Wittdorf
