Kirsten Ortwed 'Heavymetalopenspace' Nov 4, 2006 - Feb 3, 2007    

The Cologne based Danish Sculptress Kirsten Ortwed (born 1948) is known to the public audience at the latest since 1997 when she was represented at the Venice Biennale. She belongs to Denmark's most celebrated artists and was awarded with several prices. Furthermore her works are presented in several international private and public collections.

Ortwed's sculptures which appear almost classical disclose space through form, variegated surfaces as well as by their positioning in the exhibition space. In the Kewenig Gallery's exhibition five big steles made of bronze are fixed to the showroom's ground. Each one of the five sculptures with a physically moulded surface shows spiraled notches and bulges by which the objects seem to bore – from the ground – into space.

The object's title Heavy Metal in Minimum Gravity refers to this seemingly weightless upturning despite the material's heaviness. Ortwed does not reproduce objects from nature or everyday life. To relate to anything real is left to the beholder, one can give one's fancy full scope. That is exactly HEAVYMETALOPENSPACE – weighty metal and an open space which is not narrowed down by any interferences or regulations of form or meaning. By the arrangement of the sculptures in the exhibition room the beholder is able to walk around the objects and to experience their effect actively. The steles break through the surrounding space. The contemplator can experience the play of light and shadow that radiates into the room and animates it.

The sculpture One Level of Two consists of bronze lying on sharply cut marble. It's title emphasises the appearence of opposing forces that are combined in this enthralling work. Despite the massiness of the material the artist succeeds – by shaping folds and bows - in adding the impression of movement and verve. That leaves the impression of a processual way of working. It seems as if the process of becoming still persists in the finished object.
Does the material affect the form or does the artist’s idea already stand at the beginning? By apparently leaving open this question, Kirsten Ortwed keeps a constant outer and inner tension within her works.

The models of Ortwed's outdoor sculptures visualise this dynamic working process. They document some of Ortwed's works in public space that are now presented in a comprehensive publication for the first time. This book will be introduced in the course of the opening reception: Kirsten Ortwed. Heavymetalopenspace. Works in the Public Sphere 1996 – 2006. Ed. Wilfried Dickhoff, published by DuMont Verlag, Cologne 2006.

The gallery is opened from Monday thru Saturday between 10 am and 6 pm. For further information, reproducable illustrations and interviews kindly contact us at Phone 0049-221-964 9050 or info@kewenig.com