7 May to 25 June 2022
Celebrating over 60 years of twinning activity between Scunthorpe and Lüneburg, we are delighted to present this new exhibition of painting, sculpture, graphic art and photography, in partnership with Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg.
Curated by Enno Wallis, X-Change brings together ten artists, from the 20th century to the present day, who are associated with the German town. These ten contemporary artists were either born in Lüneburg or live and work in the area.
Lüneburg is situated in the north of Germany, 35 miles from Hamburg. This historic, medieval town, with a population of 77,000, has been twinned with Scunthorpe since 1960. The aim of twin towns is to make cultural and commercial connections and encourage human contact and tourism. It was initiated to improve relations between countries after World War II.
The work in this exhibition belongs to the art collection of Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg.
The Artists
Gerhard Fietz belonged to a group of avant-garde abstract painters in Munich; ‘ZEN 49’, founded in 1949. This group sought an inner spiritual life expressed through painting. They aligned with far Eastern philosophy as an antidote to the horrors of war.
Artist and curator, Justine Otto, completed her studies in Frankfurt in 2003 and has featured in major exhibitions in Europe and the USA. She paints large, expressive and bold figurative works.
Annegret Soltau was a prominent artist in the feminist art of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Her work focuses on the human body. She says ” I am the model for my art because I can go as far as I want with myself”.
Bernd Uhde takes abstract aerial photographs. He edits his images to create a vision of landscape that is almost impossible to decode.
Karin Marquardt creates minimal art in painting, collage and sculpture.
Anton Bröring got his degree with Joseph Beuys in Düsseldorf. His work explores the relationship between objects and painting.
Franek is a multi-media artist working in painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and video. Her work is informed by her memories of childhood during the second world war.
The Rixdorfer Drucke workshop is a German artist collective who combine literary text and graphic design. They are the oldest existing German artist’s group founded in Berlin in 1963.
Since the 1980’s, Jörg Immendorf (1945–2007) has been recognised as one of the most important artists in modern Germany. In 1978 he developed a ‘social realism’ painting style and called this phase of work Cafe Deutschland. This body of work explored the conflict between East and West Germany at that time.
Images courtesy of the artists and Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg. From top to bottom: Justine Otto, Gerhard Fietz (detail), Annegret Soltau and Karin Marquardt.
