DOCENT PICK
KAYA at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld
07/07/2024
Docent is pleased to announce the opening of "Between Pixel and Pigment Hybrid painting in the post-digital age", a joint exhibition between the Marta Herford Museum of Art and the Kunsthalle Bielefeld.
This avant-garde exhibition will include works by KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers) among other avant-garde artists.
Between pixel and pigment: Hybrid painting in post-digital times
07.07.2024 –10.11.2024
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Artur-Ladebeck-Strasse 5 33602, Bielefeld
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-6pm
Marta Herford Museum of Art
Goebenstraße 2–10 32052, Herford
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-6pm
This avant-garde exhibition will include works by KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers) among other avant-garde artists.
Between pixel and pigment: Hybrid painting in post-digital times
07.07.2024 –10.11.2024
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Artur-Ladebeck-Strasse 5 33602, Bielefeld
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-6pm
Marta Herford Museum of Art
Goebenstraße 2–10 32052, Herford
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-6pm
New era, new form
The exhibition, developed jointly by the Museum Marta Herford and the Kunsthalle Bielefeld and taking place simultaneously at both venues, is dedicated to post-digital hybrid painting and thus reflects our hybrid post-digital present, anchored between the digital and the analog.
In this large-scale collaboration, the focus is on a painterly way of thinking that has expanded considerably, especially in the last ten years, through the equal interweaving of content and technology of the hybrid.
The exhibition unfolds like a rhizome, connecting each artwork to another, and creating layers of reading and interpretation. As Debo Eilers explains: “My work operates accumulatively: each iteration of it is informed by what has preceded it.”
In this large-scale collaboration, the focus is on a painterly way of thinking that has expanded considerably, especially in the last ten years, through the equal interweaving of content and technology of the hybrid.
The exhibition unfolds like a rhizome, connecting each artwork to another, and creating layers of reading and interpretation. As Debo Eilers explains: “My work operates accumulatively: each iteration of it is informed by what has preceded it.”
Fluid and hybrid paintings
The international artists fundamentally question the traditional medium of painting. To what extent do the changes influence materialities, image-media structures and aesthetics?
How do hybrid spaces, bodies that have become fluid and a feeling of being in-between find pictorial correspondences? With the Kunstakademie Münster as the third project partner, museum practice, academic teaching and research are combined in an experimental way.
How do hybrid spaces, bodies that have become fluid and a feeling of being in-between find pictorial correspondences? With the Kunstakademie Münster as the third project partner, museum practice, academic teaching and research are combined in an experimental way.
Formation and Early Work
KAYA, a collaboration between artists Kerstin Brätsch and Debo Eilers, was formed in 2010, adopting the persona of Kaya Serene, their 12-year-old patron saint, as an allegorical figure for their merged practices. Their early work, showcased at 179 Canal in New York, featured paintings that were repeatedly sliced, patched, and re-tuned. The addition of other guests and performers in their exhibitions further disrupted traditional notions of art production, creating a state of perpetual experimental excitement.
Innovative Techniques and Subversion
The duo's work deconstructs conventional painting techniques, employing a variety of materials and methods, such as painting on mirrors, transparent foil, and unconventional objects like bathtub handles and lashing straps. Their art aggressively engages with and subverts painterly gestures and routines, presenting painting as a "bag of tricks." This innovative approach dismantles artistic norms, revealing the underlying mechanisms of art production while maintaining a playful and provocative edge.