Ulla Ströhmann

Ulla Ströhmann combines the ancient wax technique of the Encaustic with the geometrical design language of the modern age. With her color and material combination, the artist holds a unique position in the contemporary art world. The Cologne-based artist supplements the tradition of pigments in wax with silver and aluminum leaves. While the linear compositions provide clarity, the colored surfaces and the sensuality of the wax are characterised by a warm liveliness. Since 2000 she is actively involved in exhibitions in Germany and Europe and represented in numerous collections.
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Poetry and Clarity
Ulla Ströhmann’s objects represent the balance of seeming contradictions: the strict composition and the coolness of the reflective metals stand in intense contrast to the lively intensity of the color surfaces. Based on geometric grids, the artist creates areas with silver, aluminum, copper or gold leaf metals. She juxtaposes these with monochrome fields in which the pigments create layers of paint which vary in opacity. The transparent organic wax, which is applied in several layers, reflects the light from the bottom layer of paint and gives the paint a special radiance and depth effect.
At the same time, her works are in dialogue with architecture and space, which results from her artistic beginnings as a sculptor. The discovery of new techniques, substances and forms has always been part of Ulla Ströhmann’s artistic principle. At the beginning of the nineties she came across the versatile wax method, which fascinated her by its longevity: the molecular composition can remain unchanged for hundreds of years.
While the underlying geometric principle conveys peace and balance, the lively color surfaces and the intense luminosity of the pure pigments stimulate the viewer. Through its lucid effect the natural wax pulls the eye into the depth of the image surface, while the reflective coolness of the metal surfaces keeps the eye on the surface fascinated by the unevenness of the wax material. Construction and emotion, intellectual coolness and sensual warmth are combined in an exciting harmony.
With her color and material combination, the artist holds a unique position in the contemporary art world. She captures a unique color scheme, because the leaf metals as a background allow a special kind of reverse reflection, which reacts directly to light, .
This dimension of the non-imagenable, the invisible, the unconscious and the infinite is new in Ulla Ströhmann`s work. With this she leads through spaces of an apparent reality, behind which more and more spaces of a future reality are hidden.

Vita | |
1978 -1984 | Studies Art/Sculpture, University of Applied Sciences: Art and Design, Cologne. With Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Prof. Peter Skubic |
1986 -1992 | Installations, Objects |
1992 | Focus onto surfaces, paintings, Enkaustic – sheet metal on wood |
2012 | Artist in residence – scholarship, Okayama/Japan |
Group Exhibitions | |
2011 | „Messmer foundation, Kunsthalle Riegel |
2009 | „Horizon“, Het Kruithuis, s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands |
2008 | Centre Culturel Christiane Peugeot, Paris |
2007 | EuropART, Genf |
2006 | Dr. Kaske Foundation, camera artists, München |
2005 | Trinitatiskirche, Köln |
2000 | „Joins“, Museum of city Blankenheim |
Solo Exhibitions | |
2018 | Art club Eschweiler |
2017 | Gallery FlowFineArt, Leverkusen |
2016 | „Clarity, Concentration: Colour“, St. Agnes Church, Cologne |
2014 | “Close to distance“, University of music and dance, Cologne |
2012 | „Meetings“, Okayama/Kurashiki, Japan |
2010 |
„Opposites attract“, Gallery Lau, Munich “Transparencies”, Castle Gebesee near Erfurt |
2009 |
Equilibrium“, Gallery Lau, Munich „Poetry und Strictness“, Art club Nümbrecht |
2008 | „Timeless Contemporary“, Galery Lau, London |
2007 | “Shining colour fields”, Foundations for concrete art, Freiburg „Reflections“, Foundation Daniel Henry Kahn-Weiler, Rockenhausen „Lichtungen“, Castle Gebesee bei Erfurt |
2006 | „Colour and Light“, Foster-Museum, Neu-Ulm |
2000 | „Twillight“, Stapelhaus, Cologne |