BREMEN.- This December four Bremen artists are presenting new works at the Kunsthalle Bremen in an exhibition titled “Focus Young Art. Bremen 2017”. The exhibition takes place in cooperation with the Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung zur Förderung junger Künstler (Foundation for the Support of Young Artists) and provides a prominent platform for promising talent.

The artists presented in the exhibition are Amina Brotz (*1986, Henstedt-Ulzburg), Conor Eric Gilligan (*1981, Friedberg), Matthias Ruthenberg (*1984, Berlin) and Michael Schmid (*1981, Langenau).

Amina Brotz, *1986, Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, studied at the University of the Arts in Bremen and is a Master Student with Prof. Heike Kati Barath in 2016/2017. Originally a painter, Amina Brotz now works in various media and formats, starting from location and different materials. Her time-based, conceptual works are realised as installations, performances and videos. Her work frequently questions the basic principles of art and counteracts them with the absurdity of the everyday. In 2016 her artist books were shown in the group exhibition “Artists as Independent Publishers” in Stockholm, London, and Vienna, among other places. Currently, she is represented in the exhibition “OH WOW” at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art in Bremen.

Conor Eric Gilligan, *1981, Friedberg, Hessen, studied at the University of the Arts in Bremen and was a Master Student with Paco Knöller in 2013/2014. He develops multifaceted environments and installations which usually serve as the framework for performances and ‘actions’. He makes use of various media and methods and links his preparatory work in the studio to a dialogue with exhibition locations, other artists and his viewers. In the spring of 2017 the Galerie Herold in Bremen presented his expansive work “How the West was won and where it got US”. At the same time, the Galerie Tanja Wagner in Berlin displayed his small bronze sculptures at its exhibition “(un)mediated nature”.

Matthias Ruthenberg, *1984, Berlin, studied at the University of Arts in Bremen and was a Master Student in the class with Katrin von Maltzahn. He combines delicate, non-representational drawings with symbolic allusions and everyday poems. He focuses on works in pencil and paper and displays these generally small pieces directly on walls or in artists’ books he has bound himself. His work has been displayed in exhibitions in Seoul and Oxford, amongst other places. Currently one of his artists’ books can be seen in the exhibition “All the Artists Books” at the Centre for Artists’ Publications, Museum Weserburg, Bremen.

Michael Schmid, *1981, Langenau, Baden-Württemberg, studied at the University of the Arts in Bremen and has been a Master Student with the artist duo Korpys/Löffler since 2014. In largely black-and-white photographs, Michael Schmid superimposes objects and reproductions in order to reflect on the issue of reality and its representationreproductions. He frequently juxtaposes the analogue images that he has taken, which are printed as digital pigment prints, with simple, found or altered objects in his exhibitions. Currently his images can be seen in the group exhibition “Trunk” at the Kunstverein Lüneburg. In 2016, the New York art gallery Aperture Foundation presented several of his photographs in the group exhibition “Photography is Magic”.