Studio visits

I visited many artists in theirs studios and we talked about our work. I saw Petros Christostomou, who builds architectural models of rooms in a small size, furnishes them accurately and then places something in a normal size inside. Finally he takes fotos, and that is what he shows, not the models. Between the model and the real size thing new meanings and associations are emerging. I visited the Cuban painter Renelio Marin, who makes paintings about philosophy and philosophers, most of the time in relation to his home country, often many scenes in one painting, often combined painting and drawing. You have to take time and watch carefully to see all the details. Michele Jaffe showed me in her studio her huge sound installation with 12 helmets and a very delicate sound piece, which is wandering between the helmets and seduces you to follow the voices. Her steel sculptures create an intense tension to the human body. John Zinsser showed me some of his abstract paintings, which are just perfect. Nothing to add. Michele Brody invited me her tea ceremony installation and to see her new root paintings (the roots of plants are creating the painting) in a temporary Chachama Gallery in Harlem. Chachama uses temporarily empty spaces and gives them to artists to make a show there. Yesterday I visited the ISCP, where I was as a resident two years ago. Two artists were presenting their work (the so called salon which takes place every two weeks, most of the time it is very interesting). Afterwards I could see the studio of Johannes Rochhausen, a painter from Leipzig. He is painting his studios like a stillife and in very reduced colours. The paintings are perfectly done and very calming. On Sunday – the day before my departure – I will visit the studio of the video and performance artist Nadja Verena Marcin.