We commence the new year with Berlin-based artist, Felix Baxmann’s first solo exhibition in the gallery. Baxmann completed his studies in 2017 as Meisterschüler (the highest artistic accolade) at the Berlin University of the Arts and won the Art Prize for Drawing in Rostock that same year.
The largest group of works are comprised of ink drawings on paper, which are built up by countless miniscule weaving patterns. Some are compacted into several layers in such a way that they create structures that are reminiscent of textiles. His work process is almost meditative, and requires extreme discipline and perseverance.
“When I draw, the process is always based on the formulation of a concept. I set myself a task before I begin. An example would be to draw one hundred drawings using only one pencil. At some point in the course of this process, I get to a point of physical and/or psychological exhaustion – to a point at which I could make work easier by changing colour or medium.
Except I persevere, because overcoming this moment of exhaustion is the focus of my work.
Through the consistency of self-discipline, a sensibility emerges for me, one that then creates new sensibilities that can refer to the smallest of things. Through the slow speed of my working process, drawn forms become denser and this allows for the invisible to become visible in the work: time and willpower.
Every work harbours the wish for an external sensitivity, i.e. evoking a feeling of tranquillity and sensitivity during the process of reception. The drawings are intended to sensitise recipients both in their viewing process, as well as within themselves.”
(Felix Baxmann, 2017)