E.R.N.A. // Elke Böckelmann

On - Off - On - BLICK

Pictures & Sculptures

Exhibition period from 25 January to 8 March 2025

Opening hours __ Thu 4 - 7 pm / Fri 3 - 6 pm / Sat 2 - 5 pm

Fernissage __ Saturday, 25 January 2025, 7 pm

Laudator __ Dr Ingrid Koch (violin), Dresden

. January 2025, 7 pm

Laudator __ Dr Ingrid Koch, Dresden

Music __ Steffen Gaitzsch (violin) and Christian Langer (marimba)

Finissage: Saturday, 08. March 2025, 3 pm

Conversation with the artist

______________________________

A long-standing tradition for DRESDNER SEZESSION 89 e.V., an exhibition in honour of a long-standing artist s work will also be held in 'galerie drei' at the beginning of this year 2025.

E.R.N.A. - alias Elke Böckelmann (*1954 in Dresden) studied painting and graphic art at the HfBK Dresden under Professor Gerhardt Kettner, which she completed in 1984 with a very impressive diploma thesis on the lyrical cycle "Of the Angels" by the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.

Since 1984, she has lived and worked as a freelance artist in Altenau in southern Brandenburg and, together with artist and husband Paul Böckelmann,

has converted and extended a vicarage and created a lively cultural meeting centre for the region by setting up an art workshop and a gallery. This is where she finds her unmistakable language and signature style.

Since 1984, ceramics have also become the focus of her artistic exploration.

Her exhibition "An-Aus-Ein-Blick" at galerie drei / DRESDNER SEZESSION 89 e.V. concentrates mainly on works from the last few years of her career.

On display are large-format, largely serial paintings and drawings as well as ceramic sculptures, whereby she also 'inscribes' herself here through drawing.

The human figure, especially heads and faces, become existential carriers of expression of her perceptions and thoughts as well as the experiences that have shaped her life.

E.R.N.A. - Elke Böckelmann 2025 - Excerpt from her statement:

"I often work serially on a theme in order to explore many directions, to allow juxtapositions and contrasts to become visible. "

"I am constantly surrounded by faces, heads that I have fantasised, invented, seen and drawn. They often depict people from my surroundings, my world. It is a glance, a moment of astonishment or an experience over a long period of time. They are created in a process that is both spontaneous and controlled.

...The beings created in this way reveal themselves as individuals in their characteristics and outward appearances. ... The mostly larger-than-life format is limited to the heads, leaving only traces in their surroundings, creating the space of their aura, which makes them unique. ... Here I am above all a draughtswoman, I am interested  not only in the magic of the black and white contrast but also in the concentration of coloured lines on a white background. ... The correspondence of the black, the grey, the white, the colour with the nothing, forms the space, shapes the bodies. ... My ceramic sculptures have always been created parallel to my drawings and paintings. In addition to the three-dimensional form, the drawing on the ceramic material is also important to me. ..."

Paul Böckelmann April 2009 - Excerpt :

" ... In the head pictures, the square seemingly captures the excitement, clutching the facial expressions and gestures depicted like a white box, and one is tempted to associate  questions. Precisely those questions beyond language that want to be answered with stomach twinges, diaphragmatic rumblings, with feelings. Only pathos will not be helpful here....

... Although E.R.N.A.'s painting does not want to introduce anything literary, her constellations of figures develop a story-like life of their own, to paraphrase an old-fashioned word: an allegorical ensemble. The painting seems light-handed, skilful, masterly. But the next glance reveals a heavy heart. Here is a woman who knows what she is painting. ..."