Catalogue ›Alpirismus‹ Katrin Kampmann | Lachenmann Art

Catalogue for the solo exhibition by the artist Katrin Kampmann entitled ›Alpirismus‹, which took place from October 16 to November 25, 2021 at the Lachenmann Art Gallery in Konstanz. Texts by the art historian and gallery owner Juliane Lachenmann and the Lachenmann Art Team.

In the intoxication of the mountain air, amidst the shimmering alpine flora, bright colors flow together in ecstasy. Bewitched by the gentle charm of the mountains, hikers set out in search of the next delight. High up, where edelweiss and fly agarics enchant us, we feed on the power of the alpine landscape. The exhibition title ›Alpirismus‹ hints at the special way in which the artist Katrin Kampmann approaches the mountain world in her work.

The sensual yet strong splendor of colors reflects the energies that can be triggered by looking at and experiencing the mountains. Through a clever neologism from ›alpinism‹ and ›vampirism‹ - which is not to be understood as bloodlust, but as mountain intoxication - the exhibition title Alpirism stands for a gain in strength, for being transported and overcoming problems and everyday worries through self-forgetfulness. While the artist lets liquid paint run into each other on her canvases and papers during the production process, pouring onto the picture surface in flowing streams, we follow the gentle and moving color paths when looking at the sensual works. In a symbiosis of chance and control, Katrin Kampmann directs her color streams into certain paths, giving them directions from which shapes and surfaces crystallize into objective motifs. The figurative moments arise from a balanced dualism of abstraction and figuration, which the artist develops into her own formal language and which runs through her entire work. Her painterly creations repeatedly play with traditional genres and well-known subjects.

In the works presented here, she focuses on landscape painting, which she has increasingly turned to and revitalized since a performative hike along the Berliner Höhenweg in the Zillertal and since an artist residency in Bad Gastein, Austria. Massive mountain ranges, snow-covered mountain peaks, hills and valleys pour before our eyes in the dynamics of the flowing streams of color, offering us a balanced combination of realistic mountain worlds and ethereal color combinations that have sprung from the artist's imagination. With the help of her works, Katrin Kampmann also knows how to stimulate our own imagination by offering us figurative clues that we can discover for ourselves when we look at them, complete them in our mind's eye and understand them. When we look at the candy-colored mountain worlds, we immerse ourselves in ecstatic and new feelings.

Discover the works of Katrin Kampmann