20.09.2022 – 11.02.2023
10 JAHRE
GALERIE SPRINGER BERLIN
JUBILÄUMS-
AUSSTELLUNG
Verlängert bis zum 11.02.2023
We are delighted to invite you to our group exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of
Galerie Springer Berlin. When we opened the gallery in its current format 10 years ago,
it was founded on Robert Springer’s 20 years’ experience of gallery work stemming from
a long family tradition. The decision to run the gallery with Heide Springer resulted in a
reorientation of the gallery programme towards photography.
Over the past decade, we
are proud to have made an international name for ourselves as a gallery in this diverse
field. And alongside the necessary commercial focus, we have always placed great value
on quality and curatorial concepts, and see our gallery work as a cultural task. Luck has
also played a role in our on-going work in this direction and we are grateful for it.
For example, the area around our traditional location in Berlin-Charlottenburg has again
developed into a much sought-after area for galleries. Important public and private
institutions as well as photography galleries have since taken up residence close by, so
that the area has become an attractive and recognised quarter for all interested parties.
Over the past ten years, we have succeeded in putting on exhibitions with world
renowned photographers, including Edward Burtynsky who we represent exclusively in
Germany, Evelyn Hofer, Ingar Krauss, Saul Leiter, Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler, Joel
Meyerowitz, Loredana Nemes, Arnold Odermatt and Georges Rousse, and we have
enjoyed a successful working relationship with the latter two artists for well over 20
years now.
We also present recognised European artists for the first time in Berlin: Catherine Gfeller
and Aitor Ortiz.
And of course our programme includes Berlin-based photographers, covering new
approaches as well as new discoveries, such as Kathrin Linkersdorff who is now active
internationally, Maria Jauregui Ponte, Anna Lehmann-Brauns, Lohner Carlson, Wiebke
Elzel and Jana Müller, Winfried Muthesius, Ashkan Sahihi, Michael Schäfer and Sebastian
Wells, and Jens Liebchen and Peter Klare whose new series were shown in our most
recent exhibition.
In our anniversary exhibition, we are presenting a special selection of personal
favourites, chosen gems and highlights from the previous decade, and premiering a few
new works by our artists.
19.10.2021 – 29.01.2022
MARIA JAUREGUI PONTE & AITOR ORTIZ
NATURAL APPEARANCE
In the exhibition Natural Appearance by Maria Jauregui Ponte and Aitor Ortiz,
Galerie Springer Berlin is showing two series that have emerged independently of each other, but
which are dedicated to the same theme, namely the appearance of nature. Both artists have used
photography to capture the visible and the invisible in different ways.
In the series Wo Fuchs und Hase (Where Fox and Hare), which Maria Jauregui Ponte has been
working on since 2018, the gallery is showing pictures from a small location in Mecklenburg. The
cycle deals with wild animals that share their living space with people. By day, they live
withdrawn, distanced from human beings. As soon as it gets dark and residents have withdrawn to
their houses, the animal world re-conquers the terrain. Maria Jauregui makes this reconquering
visible with the help of a wildlife camera. In the daytime, the artist takes the camera with her as
she searches for traces the animals have left behind in the night.
Ortiz photographs the fascinating formations of swarms of starlings on the Basque Country’s
Atlantic coast. Isolated from their natural background, they form dark specks on empty canvases.
These structures or clusters are jointly coordinated by hundreds or thousands of creatures. They
constitute an agile, unpredictable choreography in which the individual disappears. Ortiz captures
this natural wonder with his camera and alienates it with technical sophistication.
Maria Jauregui Ponte and Aitor Ortiz come from the Basque Country in Spain; Ortiz lives near
Bilbao, Jauregui Ponte in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
About Maria Jauregui Ponte:
Maria Jauregui Ponte, born in the Basque Country in 1972, has been living and working in Berlin
since 1996. She is a self-taught photographer and honed her skills in internships and
assistantships before studying at the New School for Photography, graduating in 2012. Ponte sees
photography as a testing ground, offering her a variety of opportunities for expression. The
tension between coincidence and control forms part of her approach. Since 2000, she has
participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and Europe, including at the Haus
am Kleistpark, the Fotohaus ParisBerlin and the Rencontres d'Arles 2017 (solo exhibitions) and at
the Opelvillen, Rüsselsheim (group exhibition).
About Aitor Ortiz:
Born in Bilbao in 1971, Aitor Ortiz is one of the best-known Spanish photographers. His work has
been shown in numerous major museums in Europe, Asia and America, in both group and solo
exhibitions. His major solo exhibitions include: Museo Universidad de Navarra (2018),
Fotografiska Stockholm (2012), Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid (2012), Museo Guggenheim,
Bilbao (2011). The book published by Hatje Cantz in 2011 is an important monograph on his work,
which has been lauded by critics and honoured with numerous awards. His works are included in
many different collections, including: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Museo
Guggenheim Bilbao, Fundación La Caixa, AXA. Belgium, IVAM. Instituto Valenciano de Arte
Moderno, Norman Foster Collection and many others.
28.09.2019 – 01.02.2020
AITOR ORTIZ
EXPANDED PHOTOGRAPHY 2002-2018
OPENING: 27.09.2019, 19h / 7pm
In the exhibition Expanded Photography 2002–2018, Galerie Springer Berlin is showing three different work cycles by the Basque artist Aitor Ortiz in which traditional photographic boundaries are surpassed in surprising and fascinating ways.
The highlight of the exhibition is the presentation of works from the related series Vicinay and Link (2018). Vicinay is a chain factory in the former industrial area of Zorrotzaurre in Bilbao. The manufacturing plant, which produced a total of 10,000km of ship-mooring chains over a 60-year period, was moved to a new location as a result of urban-development measures and gentrification. Ortiz, who grew up in the vicinity of the industrial site and has been based there via his studio for many years, had parts of the steel floor panels in the former manufacturing plant removed piece-by-piece, involving extensive effort.
These heavy steel plates are characterised by distortions, folds and scars resulting from decades of pulling kilometres of extremely heavy, hot chains. The steel plates from Vicinay, which are being shown in the exhibition in the original (100 x 100cm), are therefore prints or impressions in the wider sense of the words.
The related series Link is the photographic treatment of Vicinay. With great clarity and striking sharpness, the works give expression to the work processes that formed or deformed the steel plates over decades, and to the cracks and ‘injuries’ caused to them as a result.
In the series Espacio Latente (2008/2018) and Modular Mod (2002), Ortiz works with space and architecture as source elements in order to puzzle us both visually and cognitively. His works, which he presents only in back and white, go way beyond a documentary form of architectural photography and emphasise the dissolution and conversion of the real that is concomitant with the photographic representation. Ortiz has an unending interest in highlighting a series of contradictions between representation and interpretation (perception).
About Aitor Ortiz:
Born in Bilbao in 1971, the artist is one of the best-known Spanish photographers. He has already exhibited in numerous major museums in Europe, Asia and America, in both group and solo exhibitions. His major solo exhibitions include Museo Universidad de Navarra (2018); Fotografiska Stockholm (2012); Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid (2012); and Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao (2011). The 2011 book published by Hatje Cantz is an important monograph on his work, which has been celebrated by critics and honoured with numerous awards. His works are featured in many different collections, including Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museo Guggenheim Bilbao; Fundación La Caixa; AXA, Belgium; IVAM – Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno; the Norman Foster Collection and many others.
20.02. – 07.04.2018
RAUM / RÄUME II
LEHMANN-BRAUNS · LIEBCHEN · ROUSSE · MEYEROWITZ · ORTIZ
Opening: 17.02.2018, 13 – 18 h / 1 – 6 pm
Die Ausstellung greift zum zweiten Mal das Thema "Raum / Räume" auf und führt die unterschiedlichen Raumauffassungen und Raumempfindungen der Künstlerinnen und Künstler zusammen. Nicht nur die angewandten Techniken unterscheiden sich, es zeigen sich auch elementare Unterschiede in der Darstellung, Interpretation und Umsetzung der gezeigten Positionen.
Revisiting the theme of "Raum / Räume" (space/spaces) for a second time, the exhibition combines different concepts of space as presented by the showcased artists. Not only do they use different techniques but their distinctive approaches also feature basic differences in presentation, interpretation and execution.
13.12.2016 – 25.02.2017
FIRST CHOICE ll
BURTYNSKY · LEITER · LEHMANN-BRAUNS · MUTHESIUS · ORTIZ · ODERMATT · ROUSSE
In First Choice II zeigt die Galerie Springer Berlin jetzt bisher nicht gezeigte Werke und Werksgruppen einer Auswahl ihrer Künstler. Sieben vertretene Positionen und ganz unterschiedliche Motive und Themen – und dennoch besteht eine sichtbare Korrespondenz innerhalb der gezeigten Werke und Werksgruppen.
20.02. – 01.05.2016
AITOR ORTIZ
INTERSTICES – Photographs and Elements
Opening: 19.02.2016, 19 h / 7 pm
The Galerie Springer Berlin presents photography and objects by the Basque artist Aitor Ortiz (1971) in Berlin for the first time. Ortiz works with space, architecture and objects as source elements in order to present us time and again with visual and cognitive puzzles. His work, which he presents exclusively in black and white, goes beyond documentary architectural photography and emphasises the resolution and transformation of ‘the real’ combined with photographic presentation.
Ortiz has an ongoing interest in pointing out a series of inconsistencies between presentation and interpretation (perception). He makes connections between the content of his images, the material characteristics of the carriers used to reproduce his work and their position in the exhibition space. In the course of this, the artist creates another framework for his work and the relationship between the places photographed and the conscious and unconscious means which come to fruition within his work processes: the eye (interpretation, scope, decontextualisation...), the camera (sharpness/blurring, optical distortion, motion transfer...) and the brain (the imperfection of its information intake and its empirical practices ...).
These relationships accumulate in the exhibition space, where the physical experience transcends the actual content of the image. A process of ongoing interaction between presentation and perception emerges. In “Aitor Ortiz”, published in 2011 by Hatje Cantz, curator Michelle Marie Roy writes: “When I consider Ortiz’ work, I am reminded of a quote from Jan Szarkowski from the introduction to his book, “The Photographer’s Eye”: “An artist is a person who seeks new structures in which he may rearrange and simplify the reality of life.”rnThis, according to Michelle Marie Roy, is what Aitor Ortiz accomplishes in his work.
Although traces of various influences from classical photography can be found in Ortiz’ work, primarily from the Düsseldorf School, his photographs are in no way documentary – rather, he creates an entirely new reality. The artist skilfully combines analogue and digital processing technology in his works. Michelle Marie Roy: “He edits his images to adjust them to his vision.”
In the current exhibition, INTERSTICES, the Galerie Springer Berlin presents a selection of works from different ranges by the artist, the common theme of which is interstices.
The artist, born in Bilbao in 1971, is one of the best known Spanish photographers. He has already held group and solo exhibitions in numerous big museums in Europe, Asia and America. The largest solo exhibitions included the following: Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao (2011), Fotografiska Stockholm, 2012, Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid (2012). The book “Aitor Ortiz” published by Hatje Cantz in 2011, is an important monograph about his work, for which he has been celebrated by critics and awarded numerous prizes. His works have been included in many different collections, including: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Fundación La Caixa, AXA. Belgium, IVAM. Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Norman Foster Collection and many more.
