Opening on Tuesday, April 23 in advance of Gallery Weekend Berlin, the exhibition will bring together the artistic Virnich-Prytz family, and debut new paintings and sculptures, unraveling an interplay of inherent poetics in their respective practices.
On View through July 5, 2024
March 4, 2024 (Berlin, Germany) – Artefact Gallery is pleased to announce the inaugural exhibition by the Virnich-Prytz family, unveiling a series of all-new works, bringing together contemporary artists Anna Virnich, her partner, sculptor David Prytz, and her father Winfried Virnich, the German painter. On view through July 5, 2024, ‘A Family Affair’ will debut new pieces teasing out abstract meditations by each artist, exploring novel intimate scales and materials. Anna Virnich's conceptualization of works is rooted in a painterly approach, while the execution and final pieces move seamlessly between object and painting, further conversing with Prytz's sculptures and Winfried Virnich's paintings. Connecting the artists’ work beyond their personal ties, the exhibition is a take on the possibility and poetics of lightness in every form and shape.
Conceptualized by curator Anna Rosa Thomae, the exhibition will amass, for the first time, artworks of diverse corporeality exploring common threads of continual transformation and the three-dimensional, as a result of elusive interplays between materiality and composition.
After unveiling a collection of intimate pieces (35 cm x 35 cm / 13,7 inches x 13,7 inches) at Proyectos Monclova at Art Basel in 2015, Anna Virnich revisits this format for 'A Family Affair' imbuing it with a sense of humility and contemplation. Following four solo shows in the last 12 months, these new works directly reflect on the current state of the world and its overbearing truths through its clear formal language of abstraction and its almost monochromatic colorways.
The cornerstone of Anna Virnich’s practice is fabric, the emotive evocation of this tactile material into a painterly form. Recognizing the extreme personal connections humans have with textiles, Virnich charges her pieces sensually and haptically, instantly connecting the viewer to the paintings, which ultimately become familiar artifacts creating a distinctive world of genuineness. Virnich processes materials such as cloth, wax, and plants with specially developed scent compositions, and probes answers to her inner world of truth. In their abstract ephemerality, these creations forge a presence that transcends boundaries, conveying a poetic essence of the material itself and its ability to create new spaces and complexity in the painterly field. Lending a sense of vitality, Virnich uses fabrics as carriers of subjective expression through fragility and extensibility. The paintings seem to float, becoming a composite entity implying variations of depth, and at the same time echoing and celebrating qualities of lightness.
Responding to the space, David Prytz's new pieces for the exhibition will show materiality as possibilities and thought, unveiling raw matter, shapes, and surfaces combined, that singularly carry various feelings, expressions and meanings, depending on the viewer.
With a profound interest in philosophy and music, David Prytz infuses the elements of these disciplines in creating sculptures interconnected in otherworldly structures, referring to the universe and space. In exploring this approach, he delves into the intricacies of time and the cosmos, challenging the relative nature of the idea of the center. By considering each element as an epicenter unto itself, Prytz’s sculptures explore eternity, boundless space, and the unique principles and emotions that govern individual experiences. His sculptures show that the form is self-contained and cohesive, yet it only manifests within its external context, defined in relation to other elements defining space or time. Prytz creates and outlines distinctive environments where clusters interact with each other, reflecting a state of continual change, working within the dualities, both the consistency and shapeless character, fragility, and roughness of materials. The structures appear weightless and brittle, a bold contrast to their materiality which conveys rawness and incompleteness, giving the pieces a poetic distinction.
Presenting all new works at Artefact, Winfried Virnich will further his exploration of abstraction in the painterly field, inquisitive with colors and their inherent abilities to produce individual and meticulous effects on the viewer. The world of the abstract, without reference to images or symbolic functions, becomes the open field for Virnich who uses texture and minimal, pure qualities of color to create plausible paintings, beyond any didactics. The placements of shades and shapes, all dependent on each other, conceal individual metaphors bringing forth a clarity of the painterly truth. The specific rhythm of the brushwork in coincidence with pigment creates a certain poetic quality in Virnich’s paintings, suggesting context without clearly defining it. This musical quality which is a product of fine balance between the primary painterly elements, brings forth a certain chromatic quality, an interplay of lightness and depth at once.
‘I am thrilled to present 'A Familiar Affair’ as the artists will show together for the first time presenting all new works specifically for us. The exhibition unveils intricate connections in their artistic production — a sense of lightness in all pieces albeit different mediums makes for an unexpected discourse between the works,’ explains curator, Anna Rosa Thomae.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
A Family Affair is on view at Artefact through July 5, 2024.
Artefact | Geisbergstraße 12, 10777 Berlin, Germany
Monday – Friday
10 – 6 PM and by appointment
About Artefact Gallery:
Artefact is a Berlin-based gallery and project space presenting contemporary art and collectible design. We are dedicated to fostering a dynamic and inclusive community by supporting both emerging and established artists and designers in articulating their unique perspectives. Our collaborators are entrusted with unrestricted creativity, with the freedom to explore, experiment, and express themselves without limitations.
Previous exhibitions include:
‘Blushing out of Blue’ by Berlin-based Brazilian-born artist Caterina Renaux Hering
‘Transparency, Form and Color’ featuring contemporary Berlin-based artist Nadine Schemmann and mid-century glassware attributed to glass artist Albin Schaedel
artefactgalleryberlin.com | @artefactgallery.berlin
About Anna Rosa Thomae:
Shaped by her professional and personal encounters, Artefact is the symbiosis between Anna Rosa Thomae’s passion for handcrafted design and contemporary art. Her curatorial input and direction at Artefact reflect each artist’s creative expression and spirit in line with the gallery’s main objectives to support and provide visibility.
Growing up in Berlin in the 1990s, Thomae spent her formative years living and working between New York, London, and Berlin. With a career of over fifteen years in the field of global cultural communications Thomae has ceaselessly nurtured the premise that valuable synergies exist between, and can emerge from, art, design, and architecture – a vision that led her to establish the reputed international cultural communications agency A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy in 2014 in Berlin. Thomae has worked with creatives across all continents, ranging from gallerists, museums, and artists to designers, architects, and more.
Images Caption:
1. + 2. Left. Installation View of ‘A Family Affair.’ Right. David Prytz, Untitled (they) 2024. Dimensions variable. Courtesy of Artefact Gallery.
3. + 4. Left. Anna Virnich, Interlude III, 2024, 37 x 25,5cm. Seiden Tüll auf Seiden Tüll, Siebnessel und Faden auf Holz. Right. Anna Virnich, Interlude IV, 2024, 35 x 35 cm. Seiden Tüll auf Seiden Tüll und Faden auf Holz. Courtesy of Artefact Gallery.
5 + 6. Left. Winfried Virnich. Untitled 2020; pigment harztempera, leinwand; 110 x 80 cm. Right. Winfried Virnich. Untitled, 2024, pigment harztempera, leinwand. 90 x 60 cm (no. 1). Courtesy of Artefact Gallery.