Susanne Knaack
“Landscapes and Marine Paintings” (Landschaften und Seestücke)
painting and graphic art

13th November 2010 until 8th January 2011

The subject of the artworks of Susanne Knaack is first of all the sea. Her so called seascapes are fragmentary snap-shots of beaches, coasts and sceneries of the wavy sea that look like paintings with a lively brush-stroke. But in fact Susanne Knaack pours the thin paint directly upon the canvas. Moreover she always uses only black and white color, believing that chromaticity diverts from the substantial effect. Her technique is to let the colors run together and blend by tilting, rotating, shaking and swinging the canvas, so that there is no limit of new formations that resemble the sea. Within this process she is a medium guiding a particular coincidence under full effort of her body. Concerning her artwork she is of the opinion that her greatest ability is to recognize at which point she has to stop, at which state a picture is accomplished and not to get over it and to hazard destroying a satisfying result. During the last 15 years Susanne Knaack has brought her technique of pouring to perfection. This exhibition in Galerie Poll gives a deep insight into her artistic work.

Das andere Selbst (The Other Self)
11 September - 6 November 2010

Norbert Wagenbrett prefers to call his paintings rather images than portraits, because they cross the margins of common portraiture and reflect more than visible features. For Wagenbrett the painting does not mean a reproduction of a person in another kind of material, it becomes another being - “the other self”, which merges during the process of creation with his emotions, fantasy, creativity and his specific technique and owns thus a part of him. The artist puts this “other self” in an own surrounding by not only focusing the face and the chest of a person, but also expanding the image space to the knees and sometimes even to the whole body. In this way he can also exhibit the environment of the shown persons, can put it in an ambiance and can allocate attributes to them, which are references of their uniqueness and particularity.

Norbert Wagenbrett lives and works in Leipzig.

Arno Mohr’s Centenary - paintings and prints

Sabina Grzimek - sculptures

4 June - 31 July 2010

Opening: 4 June, 7 pm
in the presence of Sabina Grzimek

This year would have been the 100th birthday of Arno Mohr. Every-day themes and thin lines are distinctive aesthetic properties of this chronicler of Berlin. In the German capital he found many of his typical subjects: people in streets and parks, in backyards and bars, but also many of his models for his well-known portraits, for example the artists Brecht, Weigel and Eisler. A reductive technique was his strength: few marginal lines were sufficient to fix the essential content as Arno Mohr was a keen observer. His credo was: “In life as in art one should focus the main issue”. Sabina Grzimek, once his student at the Academy of Art in Berlin-Weißensee, is first of all well-known as sculptor. Terms like figurative or realistic do not describe her kind of work well enough . She does not only copy outwardnesses or simply external beauty. She is mostly interested in examination of hidden things and those, that are not easily perceptible. Arno Mohr and Sabina Grzimek have in common the capacity to direct the attention to what is essential. Galerie Poll shows paintings, drawings, pictures and sculptures and delivers insight into the extensive work of both artists.

„Alltägliches” (”Every-Day Things”)

- Pictures and watercolours -
13 March - 22 May 2010
Opening: Friday, 12 March 2010, 7 pm

Dieter Kraemer was born in 1937 in Hambourg.

His artworks show things and situations of our every-day life. He paints all kinds of objects which surround him: cheese, bread, bottles of wine, machines and people, that he stages with subtle irony and criticism of society. His paintings are contemporary witnesses and documents. In this way the artist acts like a chronicler of his time with a high authenticity by making unpretentious illustrations.