Since the 1970s Monika Bartholomé’s work—primarily graphite and water-based mediums on paper—has been characterized by its overlaid brushwork traces made with subtle variations of tone and dense networks of lines. The layering creates an evocatively resonant optical and psychological space. As the light recedes into the drawings, a greater emphasis is placed on an ethereal, ever-present luminosity. It’s within this light that Bartholomé finds the poetic and the spiritual. For her, Rembrandt van Rijn’s etchings hold a particular a fascination. In his prints, the light glowing mysteriously through the dense cross hatched lines use the white of the paper to suggest openings and cracks in the darkness. The etched lines are dense to the point of darkness, but never absolutely so. The work in Nightwalk represents her deep connection to light in all of its manifestations.
Her subjects include interiors, conversations between inside and outside and images that come from models, objects or places. An earlier project of Bartholomé’s “processed” works produced by Edward Hopper; all of those images addressed the complexities of seeing and being seen. She’s interested in how we look things; how we identify the familiar and discover meaning and use our own memories to connect with pictures. She shows us how we search for cues, find personal references and make connections with these new experiences. Her work shows us how experiencing art works is a process of analogizing.
Monika Bartholomé studied at the Kunstacadamie in Düsseldorf and currently lives in Cologne, Germany. For the past several decades, she’s accumulated an extensive exhibition record including projects in Germany at the Franz Hitze Haus in Münster, Museum Kunstpalast and Galerie Ute Parduhn in Düsseldorf; Museum Kolumba and Arthotek in Cologne; galerie oqbo in Berlin and at St Virgil in Salzburg, Austria. She’s showed at devening projects + editions twice before including Second Sight, her first solo show with the gallery. Monika Bartholome is in numerous public collections including Deutsche Bank, Kunsthalle Bremen, Museum Kolumba and the Japanese Cultural Institute, BW-Bank Stuttgart and Artohek in Cologne and Bonn, Germany.
