Winter Painting Workshop Gallery Tour

Billy Childish at Neugerriemschneider

Last weekend we explored some of the offerings in the contemporary art galleries of Berlin. Believe it or not, but sometimes it can be tricky to find good painting shows in Berlin. But we did manage to visit three very different and interesting painting exhibitions. Combined with the sunny weather, strolling through Mitte, this made for a great Painting Workshop field trip!

First stop was the gallery Peres Projects, where we saw the exhibition My Heroine and Her Mate by the artist Dorothy Iannone. Although Iannone is best known for her feminist erotic drawings, we were treated to some of her earlier abstract paintings. Although precursors to her later works were to be spotted in this painting, "The Sea Where Cleopatra Bathed" from 1964. We learned that this American artist was born in 1933 and lives in Berlin.

The Sea Where Cleopatra Bathed, 1964
Dorothy Iannone

The next stop was Reena Spaulings Later Seascapes at Galerie Neu. We were confronted with an at first glance cryptic press release, which we eventually realized we could take in the most literal sense. The paintings were physically painted by an iRobot Scooba 450, a robotic vacuum cleaner, and they claimed to reference seascapes by JMW Turner. "Spaulings channels the senile-visionary late later Turner in the robot's drone-like way of attacking the canvas like any vacuum floor," states the press release. Some of us were quite entertained by irreverent personality of the show, while others found it to be overly smug and ironic. But definitely thought provoking!

Later Seascapes by Reena Spaulings at Galerie Neu
© Reena Spaulings - Photo: Stefan Korte, Berlin
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Neu, Berlin

The last stop was at Neugerriemschneider to see the work of painter, poet, musician Billy Childish. Here we saw beautiful and nostalgic oil paintings on linen, contemplating man's relationship with nature and family, and his place the world. The paintings also contained many art historical references and influences, including Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and contemporary painter Peter Doig, among others. 

Billy Childish