Arno Beck
Group exhibitions
2023 | Art Cologne, Cologne |
Cherries On Top, Galerie Judith Andreae, Bonn | |
2022 | Unter Freunden: Eine persönliche Ausstellung aus dem Bergischen, Kunst und Raum 21 e.V., Krefeld |
Elb/Hängung #1, Villa am Elbhang, Hamburg | |
Chronicles 5, Modem Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary | |
Vier Jahre Kanya & Kage, Kanya & Kage Art Space , Berlin | |
Better Call Mark, Galeria Fran Reus, Palma de Mallorca, Spain | |
XY, Galerie Rundgaenger, Frankfurt am Main | |
Chronicles 4, Galerie Droste KPM, Berlin | |
LO(L) - Embodied Language, Kunsthaus Hamburg | |
Command + Control + Q, DAM Projects, Berlin | |
Das eigene im Fremden, Museum Bensheim | |
2021 | Exquisit, Schaufenster, Berlin |
Don’t put all your Becks in one Basket, Galerie Schierke Seinecke, Frankfurt | |
Salon der Gegenwart, Springer Quartier, Hamburg | |
D'Arte, Marian Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, Netherlands | |
Interleaving, Galerie Falko Alexander, Cologne | |
Shotgun Wedding, Kanya Kage Art Space, Berlin | |
The Ogre.net, Suzanne Tarasiève Galerie, Paris, France | |
Rewilding, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, USA | |
Apophenia, Culturgest, Porto, Portugal | |
Hyperbole, Galleria Nicola Pedana, Caserta, Italy | |
Googol, Artemis Galerie, Lissabon, Portugal | |
The Artist is Online, König Galerie, Berlin | |
darktaxa project - The Berlin constellation, Office Impart, Berlin | |
Watchlist 2, Galerie Droste, Wuppertal | |
2020 | Delete History, Galeria Fran Reus, Palma de Mallorca, Spain |
Surprize, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf | |
Drawing Wow, Kunstaele, Berlin | |
Dig-It-All, Dam Gallery, Berlin | |
Decade, Mariam Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, Netherlands | |
Mixed Pickles 7, Ruttkowski;68, Cologne | |
Re-Decoders, Onomato, Düsseldorf | |
Darktaxa-Project: The Frankfurt-Constellation, Galerie Schierke Seinecke, Frankfurt | |
All In/7, Galerie Falko Alexander, Cologne | |
2019 | Jahresgaben, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn |
Too Many I In Digital, Marian Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, Netherlands | |
Screengrabs, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, USA | |
Illusion Natur, Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg | |
Errorsmith, Pop68, Cologne | |
Summer Mixer, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, USA | |
Summer Splash 5, Dam Gallery, Berlin | |
Crystal Math, Galerie Schierke Seinecke, Frankfurt | |
Photon / Icon, Galerie Falko Alexander, Cologne | |
All In/6, Galerie Falko Alexander, Cologne | |
2018 | Benefit Auction, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen |
10 Marginal Years, Foxy Production, New York, USA | |
La Bodega Y Màs, Little Havanna, Miami, USA | |
Mixed Pickles 4- Michael Horbach Stftung, Cologne | |
Watchlist, Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Hamburg | |
Banz Und Bowinkel, Arno Beck, Dominik Halmer, Galerie Falko Alexander, Cologne | |
Antifurniture Store, Fortnight Institute, New York, USA | |
Signs, Creatures And Forms, Ambacher Contemporary, Munich | |
This Is Not, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
In The Future, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK | |
Digital Provocateur / The Wrong, New Digital Art Biennale, Cidade Das Artes, Rio De Janeiro, Brasil | |
2017 | Heartwork, K21, Düsseldorf |
The Wrong Club, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Die Digitale, Low Tech Art, Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf | |
2017 | Would I Rather Watch This As A Movie?, Galerie Golestani, Düsseldorf |
Metaspace, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Push Start, Galerie Rundgænger, Frankfurt | |
All In/V, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Homeoffice, Salonabend, Bochum | |
2016 | Escapism, Kö Galerie, Düsseldorf |
Syntax Error, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Farbe Muss Gesehen Werden, Galerie Golestani, Düsseldorf | |
Fenster 16, Galerie Golestani, Düsseldorf | |
Gedruckte Bilder, Kunstbahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf | |
Low Tech, Galerie Rundgænger, Frankfurt | |
2015 | Interface, Best Gruppe, Düsseldorf |
All In/IV, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Schlaraffenland, Hilbertraum, Berlin | |
All In/3, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
2014 | Schlaraffenland, Alte Börse, Berlin |
2013 | All In/2, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne |
2012 | Wiedersehen, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne |
Gruppenausstellung, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Nkotb, Bespoke, Düsseldorf | |
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Projekt 8, Copenhagen, Denmark |
Texts
In my prints and paintings I deal with forms of digital representation and the analog transfer of these visual worlds into the real pictorial space.
Basically, I start from a classical painterly attitude, which, however, has increasingly developed over time into a conceptual view of a post-digital painting. Here I use the regularities of a painterly pictorial language which, however, does not manifest itself in classical painterly forms of expression. The goal of this transformation process is to counter the fleetingness of digital impressions with an analog form of representation that can be experienced physically.
The surface structure and haptics play a decisive role in the materialization of the digital templates. The images move at the interface of virtual computer worlds and manual, artistic forms of expression. The interplay of the handmade and the digital, I try to implement and process in different media. Analog and digital representation interpenetrate each other and my hand interferes just at the point where the machine claims its area of competence for itself. Through handwork, the perfection of the machine is undermined and the "error" becomes a conceptually important component that reveals the manufacturing process. Here, I am interested in the tension between planned order and welcome breakouts from a static system that create a vibrant color space.
The time-consuming process of transferring the image data is another important aspect of my work. The digital imagery I deal with is designed for the fastest possible speed of reception, which contrasts strongly with the rather laborious and complicated work process that can be read in my images. It is also important to note that each image is produced only once, despite the potential for print reproduction. The fleetingness of the digital is charged with the aura of the unique.
In the case of the wood prints, I am fascinated by the specific aesthetics of these, in conjunction with the digital motifs - especially the contrasts of the organic materiality and feel of the wood in contrast to the cool, digital cyber world of the screen. For the prints, I use 32 different colors based on the color palette of the Gameboy Color game console released in 1998. The resulting mosaic prints confront a raster aesthetic of digital perfection with the awkward shifts and superimpositions of an analog implementation. In the series of typewriter pictures I type the motifs using different letters and characters, line by line on the paper. For this purpose, I have developed a concept of representation that allows me to create different gray values by superimposing different combinations of letters. The typewriter is thus transformed into a design tool that no longer strings together text information in a given reading direction on a two-dimensional plane, but creates an image space with depth spatiality. The tool, which was actually developed to standardize handwriting or to accelerate the reception process of writing, is now used as a pictorial design tool in a deliberately slowed down production process. In terms of motifs, I use contemplative landscapes, which I implement in as naturalistic a manner as possible and overlay with coarse pixelated elements from older computer games. What interests me most about the graphics of older games is that the individual pixel is still perceptible as an atomic, form-giving element and thus creates a certain distance to the viewer, while today's forms of representation are increasingly designed for immersion and the closest possible proximity to the object of the image. The different modes of representation exist on the picture surface in a seamless coexistence and form a new unity comparable to an augmented reality.
Overall, I understand my artistic work as a performative, artisanal process of transforming image objects that originate from a sphere of accelerated image reception. In doing so, I attempt to combine representational techniques and motifs that do not actually belong together. Through this materialization and contextual displacement, an atmosphere of contrariety is created, in which fleetingness and contemplation are reconciled.