remember – dream – draw
Danja Akulin, Peer Boehm, Ralf Kerbach, ORLANDO
Drawings and Etchings
14 June – 3 August 2019 (after 3rd August, by appointment only), Opening: 13 June, 6-9 p.m.
Artists talk with Jochen L. Stöckmann at 7 p.m.

“Drawings can be texts written by hand … diaries, notations, stylistic exercises, approximations, they can be scientific, technical, or just plain scribbled down. And – which often makes them difficult to access – they reflect moods. It is in drawings that melancholy and joy, concentration and loneliness, are often expressed in utterly unique ways” (Michael Glasmeier, Annelie Lütgens).

This uniqueness of drawing as classical medium which is constantly being renewed is what has spurred the Galerie Poll to regularly present contemporary works of this art form. In “remember – dream – draw”, four artists present drawings along with etchings from past years: Danja Akulin and Ralf Kerbach have been represented by the Galerie Poll for many years, while Peer Boehm and ORLANDO are guest artists whose works the gallery is showing for the first time. All four share a passion for the technique of drawing – complemented for two of them by a passion for the technique of etching. The show presents sheets in a classical drawing format alongside very large-format works drawn in graphite, charcoal, and ink, or using an etching needle. 

Danja Akulin composes large-format drawings either with pencil and graphite, built of extremely fine and delicate strokes set next to each other, or worked out in roughly painterly gestures with charcoal. As motifs for his works, which are mounted on canvas held by stretcher frames, he chooses forests, fields, or clouds, but he dispenses with concrete titles, thus emphasising not only the naturalistic depiction but also the interplay of shimmering light and abstract shadows which his drawings perfectly capture.

The representation of the figure in space has occupied Ralf Kerbach for some time now. In his most recent pencil and ink drawings, he shows people at work together with bulldozers, tools, or building materials. He points to the increasing alienation of these human figures with gentle humour, for example in the painting “Worker/Shape”, in which an arm is subdivided into individual, tubular limbs. Or he suspends the proportions of people and objects to accentuate his view of things. The exhibition also includes drypoint etchings with haunting self-portraits. Kerbach’s portraits stand in the tradition of his professor Gerhard Kettner (1928–1993), who influenced several generations of artists at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

Peer Boehm’s central theme is remembering. Our childhood, family, origin – all of this is stored in our memory, like travel experiences, as disordered, often shadowy impressions. Through his drawings in ink, most no bigger than DINA4, the artist calls up this entire reservoir of images. The photographs on which the drawings are based have been drastically reduced: Boehm’s pictorial language is based on the principle of erasure, in which motifs are formed from light-dark contrasts. He finds these photographs in albums acquired at flea markets or on the internet. Sometimes he even draws on found objects such as sea charts or account book pages. The drawings are presented in an inset box or mounted on wood.  

With the graphic project “Yearning” (since 2010), ORLANDO sets out to fathom infinity, as a number of etchings – the fragments – generate a changing panorama of clouds.  The fragments can be presented in various constellations, from individual works to a panorama in which the last fragment is connected to the first. The drawing “Yearning royal” (2011–13) was created while she was working on the fragments. A seemingly infinite number of vertical, small black ink strokes form a huge cloud. In her six-part series of etchings titled “Freedom” (2014–16), ORLANDO explores the dark, mysterious atmosphere of empty rooms, hallways, and corridors in buildings that were once part of the former Berlin-Tempelhof airport.

Danja Akulin, born in 1977 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in Russia, studied free art with Prof. Georg Baselitz at the Berlin University of the Arts from 2000 to 2005. In 2006 he completed his master class with Prof. Daniel Richter. In 2017 he received the Canadian Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award. Danja Akulin lives and works in Berlin.

Peer Boehm, born in Cologne in 1968, studied art history, archaeology, and German language and literature at the University of Cologne from 1990 to 1994. In 1997 he co-founded the producer gallery Kunstgewinn and in 1999 the artist group itinerarti in Cologne. In 2006 he founded the artist group Die Kunstkreditkarte – Was Schönes für unterwegs, and he has been a member of the art association 68elf e.V. since 2011. Peer Boehm lives and works as an independent artist in Cologne.

Ralf Kerbach, born in 1956 in Dresden, studied from 1977 to 1979 with Prof. Gerhard Kettner at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, until he was forced to leave the university. In 1982, his application to leave the GDR was approved and he moved to West Berlin. In 1986/87 he received a scholarship in Olevano, and in 1991 he travelled to Joào Pessoa in Brazil as a fellow of the German-Brazilian Summer Academy. Since 1992 he has held a position as a professor of painting and graphic arts at the HfBK Dresden. He lives and works in both Dresden and Biesenthal. His works can be found in numerous distinguished collections.

ORLANDO, born in Quedlinburg in 1984, completed her studies in painting/graphics at the Dresden University of Fine Arts in 2013 as a master student of Prof. Peter Bömmels. She concurrently studied at the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts and at the Berlin University of the Arts. She has been awarded several prizes, including the first prize in the Printmaking Competition of the Leipzig Book Fair 2014 and the Art Prize of the Volksbank Chemnitz eG as the eleventh Biennale of Saxon Printmaking 2016. ORLANDO lives and works in Berlin.