Bernd ribbeck biography

About Bernd Ribbeck Bernd Ribbeck is a.
Bernd Ribbeck Born 1974 in Cologne, Germany.
Bernd Ribbeck (DE 1974) lives and works in Berlin.

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Bernd Ribbeck

The small-format works by Bernd Ribbeck (born 1974 in Cologne, Germany) always show arrangements of geometric forms drawn with acrylic, ballpoint pen, or permanent markers and touch-up pens on medium density fiberboard (MDF). His compositions consist of many overlapping layers of colors that are painted in different styles as well as geometric lines that have been rubbed off and retouched many times, with the effect that they seem ingrained in the picture and support. This impression is enhanced by the spar varnish that Ribbeck usually applies to the board as a finish, giving the overall work a unified sheen. This sheen suggests spatial depth that is additionally intensified through the dark palette of intense colors.
The symmetrically arranged formations seem to acquire symbolic meaning through their glow from within, which is produced through strong contrasts and the use of white, yellow, and orange tones. A tension emerges between the blurry, open planes and geometric lines, creating a pictorial language built on the synthesis of logical and open systems of orde

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Duality as a conceptual and productive principle is characteristic of Bernd Ribbeck’s work. Mathematics/ spirituality, transcendence/opacity, space/surface, modernism/outsider art, rationality/intuition, drawing/ painting are both reference points and the DNA of Bernd Ribbeck’s abstract compositions. In his small format paintings and drawings, the artist condenses them as geometrical and painterly elements to form an illusion of seemingly infinite mental spaces. At the same time, the paintings themselves are objects in space. Paint is applied in several layers on MDF, partially ground, and then drawn over with a pen and pigmented markers based on previous detailed sketches executed on squared drawing paper. “...the pictures unfold before the eyes of the viewer in a temporality that knows neither beginning nor end,” says the art critic Noemi Smolik. This “detemporalization” also applies to the selection of Bernd Ribbeck’s abstract shapes. A “wandering” always lies behind them. From the high culture of modernism to the codes of outsider art, medieval celestial charts, mathematical r

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Alison Jacques

BERND RIBBECK

3 July – 1 August 2009
Private View: Thursday 2 July, 6-8 Pm

Alison Jacques Gallery announces our first solo exhibition of German artist Bernd Ribbeck. In this show, he will exhibit a new series of small-scale paintings on wood and paper in which saturated, abstract compositions oscillate between metaphysical and material aspirations. Ribbeck works with a timeless language that seems new, yet familiar, and operates outside of any historical specificity. A sense of space is suggested by the arrangement of shapes and forms on the picture plane, without the use of perspective as a device. Ribbeck’s approach to materials and colour is sensitive and intuitive, scoring with a biro, sanding the surface and layering colour. The process remains visible, so we can consider how spiritual concerns may be materialised in art.
Ribbeck draws inspiration from visionary individuals operating on the fringes of art history whose work often orientates towards spiritual ideas. Ribbeck’s references include German church architect Dominikus Böhm (1880-1955), and the org