The gallery alexander levy is pleased to present a juxtaposition of recent works by the artist’s Colin Snapp und Sinta Werner for the 51st edition of ART COLOGNE.

Sinta Werner’s art plays with the relationship between two- and three-dimensionality, reality and reproduction, physical presence and projection, and the interconnection of virtual and real space. In her photo-collages, installations, and sculptures, she uses the doubling of physical reality that results from illusory spaces or mirrors to produce confusion and deceive the eye.

At ART COLOGNE Sinta Werner’s (*1977 Hattingen, Germany) newest collages will be presented, which are often based on the geometric rationalism of the functionally characterized architecture of modernism. Through incisions and expansions into the realm of the relief, the motif appears double or several perspectives are lodged together with one another. The series Die Variable des Raums (The Variable of Space) is based on three-dimensional objects resulting from cuts and folding of solid sheets of paper. The collages convey the impression of architecture models, primarily through the use of right angles and hard shadows. A photo of this “model” is then once again printed on solid paper. The paper thus becomes both the carrier material and the motif, a folded model as a print template and a three-dimensional object itself.Thus, a “perforation” of the space or superimposition of real and imagined space takes place, a nearly paradox enmeshment of physical reality and artistic appearance. The doubled folding and the photographic reproduction result in an irritating game of deception in which the image of the physical and spatial presence is drawn into a paradox spiral.

Colin Snapp (*1982 Lopez Island WA, USA) deals with the subject of tourism as a crucial phenomenon of today’s mobile world society. His practice revolves around an indexical approach to both the cinematic and photographic tradition, the fascination of everyday life and the relationship between travel and perception. In his works the observer follows the traces left by travelers. They give evidence of a continually growing tourist industry and mark the beginning of a global movement that drastically transforms present day man and the spaces he passes through.

His recent works ND Studies and Delta, which will be presented at ART COLOGNE point to the more banal aspect of pre-packaged tours as the in between zones, images of information plaques, environmental vandalism or viewing platforms. By using lens filters for the ND Studies, traditionally used in lm production to filter and control the light situation, Snapp’s pictures become observational artifacts, and remind us of the stereotypical filter applied Instagram or social network shots. As a result the artist brings to mind contemporary screen culture. Whether we look through the tinted glass panel of a tourist bus, see the world through social networks on a computer screen, or simply look through sunglasses – every time perception of reality is filtered, altered and abstracted. Furthermore, in the production of the works a kind of reversal of the image process takes place: as Colin Snapp changes notions of post production by using collage and layering, rather than Photoshop, he transfers the digital back into the analogue.

Installation views: Markus Hoffmann