Efremidis Gallery is pleased to present E.X.P.O. (sub sole) a solo exhibition by Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg taking place in ERP Projekt.

Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg (* 1987, Bonn) graduated as a Meisterschülerin from the UdK in Berlin in the class of Manfred Pernice last year after studying at the HFBK in Hamburg.

For E.X.P.O. (sub sole) she is working within the concepts of showing and displaying an array of techniques and innovations. She plays with the idea of the exhibition and what it means to display something.

Working within a range of mediums, Dunkelberg works with materials that she says convey an optimism towards the aesthetics of production. Though the use of new and digital technologies should not overshadow the work itself. Dunkelberg sees this method as a way to look upon known motives with new eyes. Her work is heavily inspired by painting and the act of painting. Drawing takes up an important part of her practice. The brushstroke, the built-up of paint on a canvas is a starting point for her imagery. Using for instance woodcuts as a base she utilizes this traditional method to create startlingly new wall objects. Other times wood finds its way back into the work, in the shape of inlaid intarsia, creating a sensation of depth where there is none.

The wall of ERP Projekt is partially covered with a custom-made wallpaper featuring a screenshot of Matisse’s painting ‘Bonheur de Vivre’ (1905/06). This colorful work plays with the rules of composition and scale. A pattern is created with the repetition of the screenshot, which allows Dunkelberg to question the staging of a painting. The independent imagery in the work comes together to form a complete composition. Dunkelberg’s work playfully uses scale and reality. The oversized decoupaged leaf sculptures lying near the cobblestones of ERP Projekt feature images of the outside, streets, piles of leaves and close-ups of raindrops. They are positioned on custom-made elaborate see-through stands, which perch the objects above the ground, almost floating.

E.X.P.O (sub sole) plays with the concepts of inside vs. outside and blurs the lines between these two normally separated spheres. In front of the wallpaper, a traditionally ‘inside’ feature, a park bench is positioned surrounded by leaf objects. The bench is reduced to its silhouettes and digitally transformed into an object that floats between functional and untouchable. This interplay between nature and the human presence or consciousness and the dream world allows Dunkelberg to examine ideas on creation, reality, and morality.