Past Residents
Past Resident2013: Christa von Siemens Foundation, Brigitte Henninger Art
Mojé Assefjah
In her paintings, Mojé Assefjah develops her own distinctive visual language. The broad, arching bands of color exploit the picture space in all directions and the brush strokes entwine themselves delicately yet dynamically across the picture carrier with characteristic chromaticity, becoming denser and overlapping as they lead the viewer’s gaze to deeper levels. By applying multiple thin layers using the almost-forgotten egg tempera technique and India ink, the artist produces color effects which evoke the Italian frescoes of the early Renaissance. The lush hues of the darker loops in the foreground of the picture contrast with the chalky tonality of the background. Although the artist is committed to non-representative painting, her pictures nonetheless convey a feeling of spatiality and conjure up associations with landscapes. Assefjah’s pictorial worlds are characterized by lightness and structural density, with the alternation of transparency and opacity, daytime and darkness creating a mysterious and atmospheric quality.
Mojé Assefjah (born 1970 in Tehran) moved to Munich, Germany where she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts 1999. She was awarded for Fine Arts of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, as well as the annual scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a residency in Rome. Recent exhibitions include Down To The River, Galerie Graf & Schelble, Basel; Art Dubai, Gallery Tanit, Beirut, 2013; Galerie Nanna Preußners, Hamburg, 2012; A vista d’ occhio, Galerie Tanit, Munich, 2011; Water for my flower…, Espace Kettaneh Kunigk, Beirut, 2010 and L’ Iran sans frontières, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, 2009. Assefjah is represented by Gallery Tanit, Munich/Beirut; Gallery Graf & Schelble, Basel and Gallery Nanna Preußners, Hamburg.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Mojé Assefjah and Yang Yeung
August 6, 2013
Mojé Assefjah, Beyond the River, 2013, Egg-tempera on canvas, 393/8 × 271/2 in. (100.08 × 69.85 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Mojé Assefjah, Blackbird's Song, 2011, Egg-tempera on canvas, 393/8 × 271/2 in. (100.08 × 69.85 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Mojé Assefjah, 2011. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Tanit, Munich
Residents from Germany
Past Resident2013: Canada Council for the Arts
Paul Dignan
The starting point for Paul Dignan’s recent paintings are squares aligned in an even grid. Within these squares there are individual compositions based on one original source drawing. These paintings challenge the viewers’ perception in that the apparent uniformity of the schemata gradually begins to dissolve over time allowing slight shifts to occur. The feeling of order is further disrupted by the placement of flat areas next to airbrushed areas that feign an illusion of depth. Within a limited and regular format the paintings offer endless shifting variations that initially engage the viewers eye before ultimately revealing a certain resistance to it.
Paul Dignan (born Dundee, Scotland) is based in Ontario, Canada. He has lived and worked there since leaving Scotland in 2003. He is a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art, London and is a past recipient of The Rome Scholarship in Painting at The British School at Rome. He has received numerous awards from the Scottish Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council and The Canada Council for the Arts. His work has been included in shows at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje; FYR Macedonia and The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. His work can be found in numerous collections, including The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Unilever Collection, London and The Canada Council for the Arts.
Paul Dignan, Cota 1, 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 48 × 48 in. (121.92 × 121.92 cm). Courtesy of the artist and The Canada Council for the Arts
Paul Dignan, Beamish 2, 2012, Acrylic on canvas, 36 × 36 in. (91.44 × 91.44 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Paul Dignan, Beamish 2 (detail), 2012, Acrylic on canvas, 36 × 36 in. (91.44 × 91.44 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Paul Dignan, Corridor 2, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 60 × 60 in. (152.4 × 152.4 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Paul Dignan, Corridor 3, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 36 × 36 in. (91.44 × 91.44 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Residents from Canada
Anastasia Ax
Each of Anastasia Ax’s performances is a new performance; this is essential to her practice. Each meeting between the performer and the audience, every destruction of the material at hand, points towards a situation of indeterminacy and free activity where inner and outer can switch place. The role of ink in these activities is double-edged. It belongs to the world of drawing, the physical acts of filling out the white spaces, but the black ink has an element of poison and bile, melancholy and destruction as well. The raw energies connected with the splashing, the spitting out, the havoc, transform time from linear dimensions into circular moments. New thoughts and new communions take shape through the unpredictable openness of the situation.
Anastasia Ax, born 1979, lives and works in Stockholm. Her recent solo exhibitions include Pan Theon, Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, 2012; Bring New Life to Death, in collaboration with Marja- Leena Sillanpää, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2012; Pan Theon, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2012; Step into the current, AM art-space, Shanghai, 2012;Katarsis, in collaboration with Lars Siltberg, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, 2012; Exile,Way out West, Göteborg, 2011; An Experimental Conference on Art and Science, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2011; Reactor, Luleå Konstmuseeum, Luleå, 2011; Trunk, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg, 2010; The Kid Below, Taidihalli, Helsinki, 2010; L&A in collaboration with Lars Siltberg, Galleri Verkligheten, Umeå, 2010; 2010, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg; 2010, The Kid Below, Reykjavik Art Museum, 2010; The Kid Below, Konstakademin, Stockholm, 2010; Exile, Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, 2010 and New drawings and sculptures, Natalia Goldin gallery, Stockholm, 2009. In 2010, Ax was shortlisted for the Carnegie Art Award 2010. Her works are on display at several museums and arthalls such as; Moderna Museet, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, the Carnegie Art Award collection and Gävle Konstcentrum.
Anastasia Ax, Pan Theon, 2012, Paper, water, ink, and sound equipment. Courtesy of the artist and Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Anastasia Ax, Pan Theon, 2012, Paper, water, ink, and sound equipment. Courtesy of the artist and Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Anastasia Ax, Pan Theon, 2012, Paper, water, ink, and sound equipment. Courtesy of the artist and Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Anastasia Ax, Exile, 2011, Plaster, ink, water, clothes, books, and sound equipment. Courtesy of the artist and Way Out West, Göteborg
Anastasia Ax, Step into the current, 2012, Paper, ink, and sound equipment. Courtesy of the artist and Am art Space, Shanghai
