RathausART

Josef Hirthammer has been working as a visual artist for over 40 years. His œuvre is extremely complex and defies categorization. The broad artistic range is reflected in the different design mediums, such as painting, drawing, photography, digital painting, sculpture, and installations. In terms of content, Josef Hirthammer focuses on portraits as well as ecological and philosophical themes, which he approaches through his work series. He is an outspoken nature enthusiast who transforms his encounters with nature into art objects. He is primarily interested in the producing, generating, creative, and active nature, which becomes effective from itself and which in the philosophical tradition has been equated with the source of all finite things. The artist, who lives and works in Fürth, views nature as a macro- and microcosm of its own with a unique aesthetic. This way of thinking provides him with inspiration for his works of art.

A vast, seemingly infinite plain forms the foundation for the scene: As if from nowhere, people appear on the surface of the image. They emerge from layers rich in nuances of light white or hazy gray, leaving plenty of room for interpretation. The artist Leszek Skurski, who is a native of Poland, repeatedly devotes his paintings to figurative storytelling. In his works, he depicts many stories, that remain open-ended and allow the most diverse interpretations. They are paintings depicting narratives that seem to have paused or stopped in action, and Skurski captures these forms with a narrative density. Many evanescent moments of our existence and interactions are captured on the canvas like excerpts or snapshots between their occurrence and disappearance. Hence, the images of the artist, who lives and works in Fulda, are reminiscent of film stills or still images that outline a content, character, or mood. 

The art of the artist Olivier Aubry, who lives and works in Lille, oscillates between the boundaries of painting and drawing. Drawing was always a medium that provided him with a starting point. He describes it as his "daily exercise", which underlines the spontaneous character of his works. Each picture has its own harmoniously balanced color combination. By allowing deeper layers of color to remain visible at the edges of the canvas, an exciting interpretive field of positive and negative space emerges. This gives the drawings the appearance of engravings that have been etched onto the canvas. Oliver Aubry's works create dialogues between linear forms. Because of the ephemerality and complexity of our globalized society, he wants to create a counterbalance and something that lasts. His goal is to crystallize an essence. In order to achieve this, he utilizes a universally comprehensible, almost childlike, anti-perfectionist visual language.