Concepts and Key Themes
A Dialogue with Friedhard Kiekeben
Contemporary Artist | abstract, minimal, digital & hybrid art | RCA | international shows since 1986 | Indiana-based | from Frankfurt M
Cerulean (quantum ice), Exhibition ‘Walldrawings’, Arte Giani, Frankfurt, 2018
Artist’s Bio
“Friedhard Kiekeben’s works take form as digital wall drawings., etched and printed metal friezes and sculptures, paintings, and sequences of prints and drawings. His projects often include tailor-made and site-specific installations – such as ‘Quantum Ice’ – a version of which was first shown at gallery Giani in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2011. The work plays with conventions that art be static and confined rather than tumbling toward us. The predictable approach of geometric minimalism is often questioned and linearity is transformed into multi-facetted, or curvilinear hyberbolic views.
‘After the metaphysics of being and appearance…comes that of indeterminacy and the code…Today, when the real and the imaginary are confused in the same operational totality, the aesthetic fascination is everywhere.’ (Jean Baudrillard, Simulations).
German born, Kiekeben was one of the early artists in the UK to merge digital technologies, printing, and installation-based printmaking, and he completed a research degree on thus subject at the Royal College of Art in 1993. His works are shown internationally.
Friedhard Kiekeben’s works take form as digital wall drawings, etched and printed metal friezes and sculptures, paintings, hybrid works, and drawings, and sequences of prints. His projects often include tailor-made and site-specific installations – such as ‘Quantum Ice’ – versions of which were first shown at gallery Giani in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2011 and in 2018, and recently at Pearl Conard Gallery, Ohio. Follow this link for a more comprehensive overview of recent work including paintings, overpaintings and walldrawings.
The work plays with conventions that art be static and confined rather than tumbling toward us. The predictable approach of geometric minimalism is often questioned and linearity is transformed into multi-facetted, or curvilinear hyberbolic views. In the series ‘Quantum Ice’ and ‘Cerulean’ suggestions of space and landscape are possible, but transcend through complex crystalline arrangements.
ARTIST WEBSITE: