Born in Richmond (Virginia), USA, and living in Wetzlar, Germany, artist Virginia Glasmacher (*1969) talks about the central message of her artistic work during her interview.
Please describe the core theme and central message of your work.
My work is rooted in the sensation of colour and the experience of nature. Important reference points are the Expressionists – the artists of Der Blaue Reiter & Die Brücke and the American Abstract Expressionists. In addition, I am interested in the role of chance as a subject of painterly examination. This is of course where the abstract work of Gerhard Richter comes into play.
Virginia Glasmacher, Umbra-Ultramarin I, 2023, 30x24cm
I am interested in weaving together opposing elements, both on a formal and conceptual level. On the one hand a perception of painting, which is process-oriented and a self-reflexive medium in which the tactile nature of the paint and its texture on the canvas are as tangible as the effects of the colour. On the other hand, I am interested in a pictorial space that discloses references to reality.
Virginia Glasmacher, Umbra-Ultramarin II, 2023, 30x24cm
Introduce to us the work that you feel exemplifies or best embodies the message of your work.
– I would like to refer to the body of work currently on view at Galerie Kremers, Berlin, images of which you can see here. The two large canvase „Vista, Cadmium Green-Ultramarine” (2022) and “Vista, Ultramarine-Cadmium Red” (2022) show my interest in juxtaposing formal and conceptual paint languages.
Virginia Glasmacher, Vista, Cadmium Green-Ultramarine, 2022, 200x170cm
Areas with fluid paint washes and gestural brushwork inhabit the canvas together with markings made with artisan tools such as the squeegee or trowel. Emotionally charged mark-making with the brush is juxtaposed with a more neutral, objective mark-making guided by the element of chance. I am interested in weaving together the different languages to form a new identity. In the series of small formats attached here, the confrontation of two paint languages takes centre stage.
Virginia Glasmacher, Vista, Ultramarine-Cadmium Red, 2022, 200x170cm
What is the goal of your art, of your work – what is it supposed to do for the viewer?
I see my work as a means of giving form to how I experience the world – my surroundings, my experiences, my concerns. It is an offer to the viewer to enter into a journey of reflection and sensory experience. In a sense I offer a space for the viewer to project his/her own experiences and to complete the image in the process of reception.
Virginia Glasmacher, Umbra-Ultramarin III, 2023, 30x24cm
To end with a quote by Gerhard Richter: “Abstract images are fictional models because they illustrate reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can nevertheless infer”.
Virginia Glasmacher, Umbra-Ultramarin IV, 2023, 30x24cm
THE DEED | DAS WERK is a complementary and separately presented part of THE INTERVIEW IN|DEEDS with Virginia Glasmacher.
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