Lothar Hempel

Lothar Hempel was born in 1966 in Cologne where he lives and works. He draws his inspiration from German history as well as from Californian New-Wave, Greek tragedy, pagan culture, music and cinema. His interest doesn’t reside in references as such: taking images for what they are or for what they convey in contemporary western culture is not his main concern. Rather, he seeks a re-appropriation akin to a way of seizing reality to make it circulate in his universe. His works are densely emotional, and instead of relinquishing themselves from the start in the form of a concept, they make us face lost or forgotten memories which we feel we could recover from one second to the other, thus engendering a multiplicity of individual interpretative possibilities and creating paths between dream and reality. Lothar Hempel creates a cosmogony – complete with characters, objects and environment – in which verbal and visual intermingle and by which previously distinct media clash in an almost violent way. ...

To avoid any narcissism the gallery will not bear a name, but instead mark of the end of a century during which the Fine Arts are exhausted of unknown practices and forms, Art: Concept was born. In 1997, the gallery joined its friends in the 13th district of Paris to be part of the adventure of the brand new rue Louise Weiss. Despite unforgettable years in this district, the move to the Marais was inevitable. Today, the gallery is located in a private passage (passage Sainte Avoye) and represents artists with whom it has been working for 25 years as well as young graduates. Trying to reflect the evolution of society, the gallery emphasises its proposals in a multi-faceted reflection on individuality and collectivity in a wide range of contexts. Like Janus, it looks both to the past and the future. Today's world is so in need of reference points that it's reassuring to invent a future, thanks to artists, as well as to compare it to the past. We invite you to ask for it, we will be at the gallery, very happy to explain it to you. ...