The End is a group show with reference to the short animation film by Walt Disney The Skeleton Dance (1929) and it deals with the symbolic meaning of  “the end” and the concept of the skeleton in aesthetic and sociopolitical contexts.

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Beyond the traditional personification of death and the multiple interpretations given by primitive civilizations up to contemporary cultures, the skeleton indicates the immutable truth and the common element that unites every animate and inanimate entity. The skeleton is the foundation, the essence of the perishable matter and is the initial and final form of things. The movie of Walt Disney portrays the carefree dancing skeletons, under the light of the full moon and is played in an endless loop that suggests the beginning of an unbounded ending.

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Is there an end in the artistic creation? If there is such perspective, how can it be defined and what form does the finished work take? Can the shadow and the outline of the painting or the sculpture become autonomous works? Inspired by the film of Walt Disney, the artists retain a black and white and a "skeletal" aesthetic as a common thread in order to explore the above questions.

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Curtis Anderson, (b. 1956, USA) perpetuates memorial art after photographing from three different angles an ancient Indian sculpted stone. The artist creates a surreal background with suspended forms surrounding a circular shape reminiscent of the full moon.

 

The abstract paintbrushes of Max Frintrop (b. 1982, Oberhausen, Germany) redefine the relationship between form and content while they connect the illusion of three-dimensionality with the two dimensional surface of the canvas. The open circles of Martin Galle (b. 1981, Leipzig, Germany) refer to the ophthalmic tests and are designed to play with the visual field, so as to increase the contrast between positive and negative space and intensify the dialogue between the viewer and the artwork.

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Moreover, Tobias Hoffknecht (b. 1987, Bochum, Germany) uncovers Thonet’s furniture and places their outline in the gallery space in a way that implies the human presence.  The "zero" painting of David Ostrowski (b. 1981, Cologne, Germany) embodies and effaces at the same time the memories of modernism, while it welcomes a random event to join in the composition.

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In addition, the hanging sculpture of Michail Pirgelis, (b. 1976, Essen, Germany) like a body without organs, makes the absence of an entity a condition for renewal. The minimal sculptural installation of Stephanie Stein (born 1972, Kiel, Germany) shapes the gap between the two materials by emphasizing on the negative space and the intangible shadow.

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Last, Rosemarie Trockel (b. 1952, Schwerte, Germany) through her colorful wool knit paintings, chooses to present a black and white work with repetitive stripes that delineate the surface of the canvas. Trockel’s El Greco (2013), as if it was the design basis of an incomplete painting, besides the visual games, it triggers the sense of touch through the volume that is created by the sharp contrast of light and shadow.

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As opposed to the neutral atmosphere of the "white cube", the exhibition The End transforms the gallery into a home environment where the viewer is invited to integrate with the space and become the owner.

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There is no end without a beginning, as there is no absence without a presence and light without darkness. The supplementary relationship of opposite elements constitutes the natural progress of life and art paves the way for the unknown.

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