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.

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.

Exhibitions

	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