Ulrich Erben – Shadow in Light

The gallery will exhibit new paintings by Ulrich Erben from 23 November 2024 to 8 February 2025. The artist, who lives and works in Düsseldorf, is one of the most important pioneers of abstract painting in Europe.

His early works, characterised by his exploration of landscapes of the Lower Rhine and in Italy, lead to an exploration of the relationships and interactions between colour, light, tone and harmony. In Erben’s work, landscape becomes a “vessel of memory”. The perceptibility of space can be seen as another central theme in the artist’s work. Erben opens up monochrome colour spaces, some of which are reduced to the absolute neutrality of white.

Ulrich Erben’s later cycles of work, such as »Siria« and »Colours of Memory« are characterised by his perceptions during his travels to the South and the phenomena of light. The remembered effect of light appears as an echo in the striking reductions of his paintings.

In recent years he has created works in which horizontal and vertical line structures define the pictorial planes. Colour fields originating from geometrical compositions become connections and separations of colour interactions.

»Shadow in Light« is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. In 2019, his work was presented retrospectively in a comprehensive solo exhibition at the »Josef Albers Museum Quadrat« in Bottrop. In recent years, Ulrich Erben’s work has been exhibited at the Langen Foundation Neuss, the Museum Kurhaus Kleve, the Kunstmuseum Bayreuth and the Villa Brandolini in Pieve di Soglio (Veneto).

Ulrich Erben, Untitled, 2024 © Ulrich Erben, Courtesy Bastian