Artists – L'ESPRIT

Nadja Adelmann

b. 1987, Germany
class of Tobias Rehberger

Nadja Adelmann studied at the HfG University of Art and Design in Offenbach (DE) from 2014 to 2016. Since 2016, she has been studying at Städelschule and graduates with the title Meisterschüler of Tobias Rehberger. In her artistic practice she focusses on sculptures and installations. In her work, she uses a sensorial approach to engage with rational knowledge of the world, making theoretical data and facts directly tangible. She draws upon perceptual theories, sociology, quantum physics, linguistics and her own observations as sources that serve as the raw materials for her art. In recent years, her work has been shown in local and international exhibitions (e.g. in Singapore, SG and Seoul, KR) as well as on art fairs (e.g Art Düsseldorf, DE) and at auctions (Ernst & Young, DE). Several of her works are part of private collections.

This is air, 2020
aluminium, high performance LED-Matrix, Black 3.0 Fadenvorhang
285 x 6 x 85 cm

Maïly Beyrens Xu

b. 1994, Belgium
class of Willem de Rooij

Maïly Beyrens Xu is a Belgium based artist and musician. Her work is often time-based and site-specific, with sound as a recurring medium throughout her practice. She is one half of the band LOUCHE, founded in 2012 with partner Charlotte Symoens. They have performed in both musical venues and art spaces, such as the Ghent Design Museum (for Tumult, BE), the Church of Begijnhof Brussels (for BANG Festival, BE) or at a private party in La Granja, Ibiza (ES). Maïly Beyrens Xu collaborated with Markéta De Borggraef and Victor Van Wassenhove on their first institutional show called SOMMER in Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf (DE) and directed several music videos for “Awkward Moments”, an audio-visual collective from London (UK).

Room For Improvisation, 2020
chairs, plants

Živa Drvarič

b. 1988, Slovenia
class of Judith Hopf

Živa Drvarič’s artistic practice is based on the poetic exploration of objects, systems of thoughts, gestures, language and processes. In her recent work, reconstructed and transformed elements from everyday life are used in a way to liberate them from their primary functions in order to evoke new narratives. Discovering and playing with the connections and similarities between things are the foundations for her practice.

Emptiness, 2020
two glass bottles
27 x 8 cm

Balance (daily reminder), 2020
pair of leather shoes with debossed insoles, handcrafted by Aleš Kacin in Slovenia
32 x 27 x 15 cm

Untitled (intimate immensity ll), 2020
ceramic powder, lavender
73 x 33 x 2 cm

Reflection (sparkling eyes), 2020
silkscreen print on unprimed canvas
110 x 80 cm

Infini, 2020
ceramic powder, lavender, sage
73 x 30 x 2 cm

Untitled (Half in, half out l), 2020
ceramic powder, lavender, sage, acrylic glass
73 x 33 x 2 cm

Pia Ferm

b. 1986, Sweden
class of Tobias Rehberger

Pia Ferm studied from 2011 to 2014 at Dômen Art School and Akademin Valand in Gothenburg (SE) and from 2014 to 2020 at Städelschule with Tobias Rehberger. Her works undercut the boundaries of medium specificity by centering itself around the drawn image and how to pull it off the wall, into the room. Her tufted and woven wall hangings are based on watercolors paintings she manually translates into three- dimensional woolen surfaces. Balancing between painting and sculpture, her tapestries integrate elements of the visual vocabulary of abstraction, referring to the role of the gestural line in painting while possessing depth as well as tactile qualities. Pia Ferm’s work has been presented in both institutional and commercial solo- and group exhibitions in Germany

Das große Selbstporträt, 2020
Hand tufted wool and linen tapestry
185 x 240 cm

Strategies for a career, 2020
woven tapestry on metal hanger, linen, cottolin and wool yarns on linen warp
22 x 24 cm

Hannah Fitz

b. 1989, Ireland
class of Peter Fischli, Hassan Khan

Hannah Fitz’s sculptures are representational misdirections of assumed appearance. Made in series these shapes build an alternative and interior language between overly represented forms. Seemingly caught up in the sort of intentions you find in 2D image making, the sculptures trip over the line where an image meets its surroundings. The works found in L’Esprit are part of a series—the rest of How I Finally Lost My Heart can be seen online at L21 in Mallorca (ES).

Eye Rolling All The Way Down, 2020
dimensions variable

Louise Giovanelli

b. 1993, England
class of Amy Sillman, Monika Baer

Louise Giovanelli lives and works between Frankfurt am Main and Manchester (UK). She makes intense, luminous paintings that refer to art historical and contemporary mechanics of viewing and consuming imagery. Through interconnected series, Louise Giovanelli weaves together visual clues surrounding a specific moment or event. Her subject matter is primarily chosen for its formal qualities and includes photographs, film stills, classical sculpture, and architectural elements. By employing optical color mixing techniques of the early renaissance, Louise Giovanelli connects post-modern strategies back through time to artists such as Giotto and the canon of art history.

Dyer, 2020
oil on canvas
180 x 130 cm

Idyll, 2020
oil on linen
24 x 18 cm

Mal Air, 2020
oil on linen
30 x 22 cm

Timon & Melchior Grau

b. 1990, 1991, Germany
class of Willem de Rooij

Timon & Melchior Grau are an interdisciplinary artist duo working at the intersection of art and design. Their practice focuses on subjectobject-relationships and the tensions that arise between sender and receiver. Boundaries between subject and object have become increasingly blurred since the digitalization and will continue to dissolve. Their work reflects on the interdependence of the human to designed structures and asks what makes the human human.

Interface, 2020
light installation
glas, aluminum, LED boards

Lukas Heerich

b. 1989, Germany
class of Tobias Rehberger

The work of Lukas Heerich engages with industrial and commercial techniques to probe the interaction of function and aesthetics. Materials such as rubber and surgical steel are worked to their semantic limit, recalling the aesthetics of computer-aided-design and mass production, but also fetish paraphernalia. Juxtapositions reveal a society whose coded desires lead to the wipe-clean, durable and conformable materials he deploys. Iconic forms are given new meaning set into his glossy, serial melancholia. Having studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (DE) as Meisterschüler of Andreas Gursky, Lukas Heerich now graduates from Städelschule in the class of Tobias Rehberger.

Glocke, 2020
rubber, stainless steel, charred wood, magnetic motor
dimensions variable

Simon Lässig

b. 1992, Germany
class of Willem de Rooij

Simon Lässig lives and works in Berlin (DE) and Frankfurt am Main. He studied with Willem de Rooij. Recent exhibitions include projections (with Vera Lutz), Nousmoules, Vienna (AT), 2019; solo show, Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna (AT), 2019 and Darcy Lange: Work Studies in Schools, Mavra, Berlin (DE), 2019.

Untitled, 2020
prints, table
120 x 60 x 74 cm

Jiwon Lee

b. 1993, USA
class of Tobias Rehberger

Jiwon Lee studied at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main from 2014 to 2020. She primarily works with painting and sculpture. Her imagery often embodies virtual spaces with enigmatic figures through calligraphic gestures, embracing a state of ambiguity and contingency. Her recent work consists of transparent sculptures with cracked glass and oval frames. She showed in duo and group exhibitions in South Korea and Germany.

Nobody Knows, 2020
acrylic on canvas
145 x 112 cm

Backyard, 2020
acrylic on canvas
112 x 145 cm

Yong Xiang Li

class of Judith Hopf

Yong Xiang Li is an artist who currently lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. He received a BA from Central Saint Martins University of the Arts, London (UK) and studied from 2015 to 2020 with Judith Hopf at Städelschule. Yong Xiang Li’s practice involves a wide range of media across painting, drawing, sculpture, music and moving image. His work has been shown internationally in Amsterdam (NL), Berlin (DE), Beijing (CN), Chiang Mai (TH), Düsseldorf (DE), Frankfurt am Main (DE), Munich (DE), Naples (IT), Prague (CZ), Vienna (AT), and elsewhere.

I’m not in love (how to feed on humans), 2020
digital video
27 minutes

Chair, 2020
MDF
160 x 86,5 x 159 cm

Fiona McDonald

b. 1996, USA
class of Peter Fischli, Hassan Khan

Fiona McDonald studied in the Fine Arts classes of Peter Fischli (2015– 2018) and Hassan Khan (2018–2020) at Städelschule. Her interdisciplinary art practice spans media such as installation, video, drawing and conceptual gestures.

Sunflower, 2020
paper, marker, dye
150 x 150 cm

Playing Cards, 2020
playing cards, hot glue
50 x 50 cm

Shaun Motsi

b. 1989, Zimbabwe
class of Judith Hopf

Through painting, video, installation and writing, Shaun’s work explores the politics and potentialities of language – often focusing on the ways in which narratives are constructed, inherited, appropriated or transformed in the processes of worldmaking and cultural production. Shaun is interested in the effects that these processes have on subjectivity, on the constantly shifting boundaries between subject and object or self and other. His work has been exhibited in art spaces around Europe, in the USA and Canada.

Bad-Bar Blues, 2020
oil on linen
49 x 42 cm

Tafel (verso), 2020
oil on primed aluminum panel
60 x 50 cm

NGO, 2020
oil on linen
40 x 50 cm

Johanna Odersky

b. 1993, Switzerland
class of Judith Hopf

Johanna Odersky is a visual artist and musician based in Frankfurt am Main. Much of her work revolves around exploring how human experience is organized and embodied and how relationships between body, mind and the external world are always and necessarily situated in discursive power relations. These questions are echoed in her musical work and performances, which she produces under the name of „Iku“. Johanna Odersky‘s work has been shown in festivals, galleries and other art spaces across Europe, Japan, Mexico and the USA.

Time Keeper IV, 2020
watercolor on paper,
frame made of thermoplastic, silkpaper, and steel
22,9 x 30,5 cm

Time Keeper V, 2020
watercolor on paper,
frame made of thermoplastic, silkpaper, and steel
22,9 x 30,5 cm

Time Keeper VI, 2020
watercolor on paper,
frame made of thermoplastic, silkpaper, and steel
22,9 x 30,5 cm

Types of Clouds V, 2020
oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm

Types of Clouds IV, 2020
oil on canvas
80 x 100 cm

Nowhere to Stand, 2020
forged steel
102 x 56 x 100 cm

Nadia Perlov

b. 1990, Israel
class of Judith Hopf

Nadia Perlov is an interdisciplinary artist invested in cultural history and languages as well in its production, with a focus on the flow of migratory cultures, exploring their narratives and complex identities in relationship to politics, architecture and territory. Nadia Perlov draws lines between Jewish history and identity, and the cultural-political discourse of decolonization in Israel Palestine. In her work she uses video, narration, animation, collage, costume making, dance and music to look through broad historical movements.

Jardin Jadore, 2020
video installation, 15 min. screen, steel rods, wood

Actors: Tamir Eting, Lia Perlov and Nadia Perlov
Cinematography by Hillel Ben-Zeev
Music by J.S. Bach – Violin Concerto BWV 1041 in A Minor Andante, Natan Alterman and Moshe Levinsky Original music by Lia Perlov and Nadia Perlov

Ada Rączka

b. 1997, Poland
class of Judith Hopf

Ada Rączka works with images, text and video. She is looking for a visual and textual representation of reproductive work, including cleaning, cooking, caring and taking care of. With her works she draws attention to their repetitive, time consuming, physical and material aspect.

Untitled (ribbon), 2020
digital print on paper
11 m x 21 cm

James Sturkey

b. 1991, England
class of Peter Fischli, Hassan Khan

James Sturkey lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. His methodically executed 2D works draw upon research and experience of subjects such as pop music, theme parks and the interior decoration of British restaurant franchises. Such subjects, which for James Sturkey are passions, are as banal as much as they are built upon the idea of phantasmatic potential (economic, libidinal, etc.). The viewer finds themselves both comfortably familiar and yet alienated as the sustaining artifices of everyday life are made explicit.

Glamping, 2020
steel, wood, paint
155 x 220 cm

Camping, 2020
pen, correction fluid
30 x 42 cm

Complex, 2020
pen, correction fluid
30 x 42 cm

Blackout, 2020
inkjet print, pen, correction fluid
42 x 60 cm

Andrew Wagner

USA
class of Judith Hopf

Andrew Wagner is an artist from New Jersey and has been studying since 2017 at Städelschule with Judith Hopf. Andrew Wagner’s artistic work incorporates film, drawing, sculpture and writing. Within his artistic practice he is interested in how individual subjectivity is both produced by and in confrontation with capitalism, as well as how culture and aesthetics become embedded with history and ideology.

DEATH SOUP! A COMEDY OF ETERNAL RETURN, 2020

Digital video

30″

Actors: David Moser, Clay Koonar, Sebastjan Brank, Eugen Wist

Cinematography: Juliet Carpenter

Additional cinematography: Kristin Reiman

Original artwork: K-K, Sóley Ragnarsdóttir

Supported by: Stadt Frankfurt am Main – Dezernat für Kultur und Wissenschaft

Special thanks: Maddie Butler, Gerard Byrne, Lukas Heerich, Alke Heykes, Judith Hopf, Yong Xiang Li, Jenny Nachtigall, Marisa Nakasone, Johanna Odersky, Yasmil Raymond, Arthur Stachurski

video still
DEATH SOUP! A COMEDY OF ETERNAL RETURN, 2020
Digital video
30″

IT! one, IT! two, 2020
charcoal wall-drawings
160 x 113 cm

DEATH SOUP! The Zine!, 2020
pile of xeroxed zines

Nicholas Warburg

b. 1992, Germany
class of Tobias Rehberger

Nicholas Warburg studied at California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita (US) and at Städelschule. He is co-founder of the collective “Frankfurter Hauptschule”, which has attracted attention with interventions in public space since 2013. His works often deal in ambivalent ways with German (art) history and have been awarded with prizes and scholarships by nGbK Berlin, Künstlerhilfe Frankfurt, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Polytechnische Gesellschaft and Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst. He works mainly with Galerie Anton Janizewski in Berlin (DE).

Graduating Slytherin, 2020
oil on canvas
40 x 50 cm

Notizen aus der Edelquarantäne, 2020
series of 16 drawings, fineliner and acrylic on paper
each 15 x 10 cm

Matt Welch

b. 1988, England
class of Haegue Yang

Matt Welch works predominantly with sculpture and video. He previously studied an undergraduate degree in Painting at Wimbledon School of Art, London (UK). Recent work explores representations of the human body and its organs as institutionalized metaphors for the public body and ethical actions of the individual. The human stomach, as a physical site for the incubation, digestion and absorption of outside material, is positioned as a mechanism in Matt Welch’s work for a thinking through the gut as the symbolic habitus of instinctual behavior. His work is currently on view in And there I lay down on the ground at Croy Nielsen, Vienna (AT). He recently had a solo exhibition Adult Sculptures at Dortmunder Kunstverein (DE) in 2019.

Mechanical assimilation into a bad environment (die Verdauung), 2020
fibreglass, resin, pigment, acrylic paint plywood, oil, steel, earth, water, household waste, organic matter, keys, coins, kitchen items
280 x 250 x 60 cm

Study for a group dynamic, 2020
painted steel, plywood
70 x 40 x 35 cm

Workshirt 1, 2020
used work uniform, found leaflet
45 x 33 x 5 cm

Eugen Wist

b. 1989, Russia
class of Gerard Byrne

Eugen Wist studied Fine Arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT) and at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. His artworks and mise-en-scène-like installations draw upon elements of longing, transience, alienation, and a sense of melancholia. His childhood migration from Russia to Germany was a turn of fate that is reflected upon throughout his practice. Eugen Wist uses a range of materials, whereby the traces of being recycled or readymade linger, echoing the ambivalence of the past and the present.

No Compensation, 2020
tin, MDF board, acrylic, tape, linen, steel
100 x 140 x 8 cm

Empty Apologies Rehearsal, 2020
tin, LED bulb, cable, milk carton, MDF board, steel
150 x 200 x 20 cm

Mascara, 2020
thorn branch, pencil, acrylic, milk carton, steel
24 x 38 x 1 cm

BLUMEN 5000, 2020
Plexiglass, steel, LED tube, cable
280 x 35 x 35 cm

Schöne Aussicht, 2020
paint rollers, acrylic, plastic, Städelschule Lectures transcripts, steel
62 x 18 x 12 cm