New Frankfurt Internationals is an exhibition project initiated in 2010 by Frankfurter Kunstverein as a recurrent format. The idea behind it is to focus on the major artistic potential innate in the region and to present artists who have lived and/or have studied in Frankfurt and the Rhine/Main region and who are in part already counted among the “new internationals” in the art world.
The second edition of New Frankfurt Internationals is organized by Frankfurter Kunstverein (FKV) and Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (NKV), thus expanding the presentation out from the city of Frankfurt further afield into the region and to the capital of the State of Hessen.
Under the motto “Solid Signs”, painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, video and performance by 41 artists and artist groups will be on show at both venues. An array of the works has been produced specially for the exhibition.
Solid Signs: Revisiting materials and artistic techniques
New Frankfurt Internationals: Solid Signs addresses the interest many artists have been showing for some time now in the physical presence of artworks and in the revitalization of traditional artistic techniques and materials. In particular, a younger generation of artists is increasingly focusing on pictorial means and the different forms of expression intrinsic to them. For these artists, the material properties have the same status as an artwork’s execution, presentation or substance.
The artwork’s presence as a counter to de-materialization
The emphasis on the physical presence of objects and things in art would appear to be a conscious attempt to counter the prevailing trend in the age of digitalization. This new current is the main theme for New Frankfurt Internationals: Solid Signs. The artists in the show photograph their surroundings using analog cameras, print the pictures on paper themselves, or link photochemistry and development processes with unusual materials and situations. Large-format landscape portraits are made plein air and referencing a manufacturing process that has been deliberately slowed down.
Indeed, Super 8 cameras come back into their own to create atmospheric images rather than technically perfect shots. Simple basic materials such as wood, plaster, card and ink are rediscovered as the primary materials for sculptures and images. The artists involved also make use of new materials and procedures, but examine these closely to identify the aesthetic and physical qualities and textures they offer.
Participating artists: Florian Albrecht-Schoeck, Bianca Baldi, Khaled Barakeh, Jagoda Bednarsky, Valentin Beinroth, Alfred Boman, Andrew de Freitas, Gunter Deller, Dorothee Diebold, Christiane Feser, Genoveva Filipovic, Simon Fujiwara, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, Florian Haas, Anne Imhof, Vytautas Jurevicius, Romuald Karmakar, Johanna Kintner, Michel Klöfkorn, Daniela Kneip Velescu, Sandra Kranich, Kristallo (Jonathan Penca, Charlotte Simon, Zink Tonsur), Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler, Pia Linz, Emilia Neumann, Benjamin Patterson, Pennacchio Argentato, Att Poomtangon, Helena Schlichting, Helga Schmidhuber, Bernhard Schreiner, Jessica Sehrt, Simon Speiser, Lucie Stahl, Stefan Stark, Jol Thomson, Tracer (Thomas Bayrle, Martin Feldbauer, Daniel Kohl, Harald Pridgar), Raphaela Vogel, Markus Walenzyk, Jonas Weichsel, Sofi Żezmer.