Paper on Paper: Marcel Odenbach

Anton Kern Gallery is proud to present a new exhibition of work by German artist Marcel Odenbach. For his sixth solo show in New York, he will present new series of collages and watercolors.

Marcel Odenbach is widely recognized for his important contribution to video art since the 1970s. As a parallel to video, he has successfully explored similar subjects on paper. He belongs to a generation whose visual memory of political events is archived in black and white, referring to super 8 films and photojournalism. He explores the opposite sides of deadly conflicts, depicting polemics with elegance.

With his new collages, Marcel Odenbach blurs the tenets of exterior and interior. Set against a dark background, the large black and white collages can be seen as windows, voids or merely as TV screens. Their ambiguity shelters private existence from outside influences. Wald, a separate series of works on paper, depicts ordinary woodland images. Odenbach explores the cultural significance of the forest in recognition of German artists who draw upon it as a symbol of their heritage.

The contrasting collage layers generate a sense of illusion and allow for multiple readings depending on viewer proximity to the work. For Odenbach, the technique presents an apt metaphor to the inner and outer human condition; through collage, he raises awareness of the misunderstandings and mediations between cultures. The artist however is positioned in the middle, as culprit, observer and mediator.