| Frauke
Ehmke
The vigour and freedom of Frauke Ehmke’s
recent large works on paper could be seen as a testimony of drawing’s
longevity. They have a quality of going back to drawing’s
very beginnings and forward to a future not yet charted or comfortably
familiarised. Lines meander with a life of their own, meeting, crossing,
knotting up sometimes, unravelling, rolling away, producing areas
of dark emphasis and paler areas where the ink in the pens has begun
to run dry. Line is an active agent and does not form an outline
or a boundary. In these drawings there is no obvious point of focus,
there is no overall shape: if some recognisable or classifiable
pattern does begin to appear – say the resemblance to a blossom
or an explosion – it reduces the drawing’s vitality.
The vast field of drawing
itself today seems suspended between two poles: on the one hand
the great mass of fabricated imagery of every kind which surrounds
us and constantly accumulates and multiplies, and on the other the
free line in empty space, the ‘line taking a walk’ of
Paul Klee, the footloose line. This trembling, exploring, always
re-starting line is itself suspended between being a graphic trace
of pure energy and being a sign of a linguistic system. This vantage
point, or uncertain ground, is where we encounter Frauke Ehmke’s
generous drawings.
-Guy Brett
Frauke Ehmke lives and works in London.
Biography |
| 1964 |
Born in Germany |
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| EDUCATION |
| 1989-90 |
Camberwell College, London |
| 1990-95 |
BA (Hons) Fine Art, Central St. Martin's College of Art &
Design, London |
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| SELECTED EXHIBITIONS |
| 2007 |
'Everyday Entanglements', Broadbent, London |
| 2006 |
'Shining - Close in Value', curated by Alf Löhr, Broadbent,
London |
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'Quiet Strokes of a Night Swimmer', German Embassy, Residence
Gallery, London |
| 2005 |
'New Work 1', Adi Projects, London |
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| SOLO PERFORMANCES |
| 2005 |
"Network", supported by "Detour Consulting" |
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"London in Six Easy Steps": Six Curators, Six Weeks,
Six Perspectives: No.4: Anywhere in the World: David Medalla's
London, curated by Guy Brett, ICA London |
| 2003 |
'Lasso Performance', Hanover Square, London |
| 2002 |
'Parrot and Crutch Performance', site specific, Bardolph Road,
London |
| 2000 |
'Transformation of a Briefcase', site specific, Navigant,
Richmond, London |
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| WORK IN COLLABORATION WITH FOREIGN INVESTMENT |
| SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES |
| 2002 |
'Waffle Bank', World Tea Party, London Biennale, Horniman
Museum, London |
| 2001 |
'Ready About', off-shore installation around the Isle of Wight,
England |
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'Gold for Everybody' performance and installation, Funarte,
Group Show, Trajetorias, Rio |
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'Gold for Everybody' performance, site specific, Bar de Mineiro,
Rio |
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'Gold for Everybody' performance and installation, Gallery
Agora, Rio |
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'Gold for Everybody' performance, site specific, group show,
Parque Lage, Trajetorias, Rio |
| 2000 |
'Breeding Other Modernities', performance and installation,
London Institute, London |
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'Poker', London Biennale, 291 Gallery, London |
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'Tuning in op. 1', street performance, London Biennale, Piccadilly
Circus, London |
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'Poker', performance, Klingental, Gallery Basel, Switzerland |
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'Do You Represent Foreign Investment?', performance, Art Fair
Basel, Switzerland |
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'Poker', street performance, Zurich, Switzerland |
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