LCGA Exhibitions 2022

cover image, Arno Kramer, Untitled, 2020,  mixed media on paper, 70 x 100cm

Monumental, wall-covering charcoal drawings, figurative shapes and more abstract graphic elements.  Shades of black, grey and blue and ladders of colour juxtaposed with a purplish pink circle or a drawn pair of hands.  In Time, shows more than 100 drawings made by visual artist Arno Kramer over the past two years. New artworks that Kramer realised on the Gallery walls are also part of the exhibition.

Installation view of wall drawing at LCGA, 

Recent work

Kramer’s drawings are about what develops from intuition and visual language, without there being a fixed or preconceived plan.  Photos that the artist found or took himself often form the basis of his works.  Arno Kramer’s recent work is characterised by a higher level of abstraction, the use of hand-written text elements and a more elaborate use of colour.  The edges of a number of drawings are covered with colour ladders, which, like the keys of a piano, lend the artworks a playful and lively rhythm. 

Form and material

Arno Kramer’s drawings seem straightforward at first glance, but close examination reveals that this is far from true.  Kramer combines figuration in the form of swans, deer, hares, wolves, faces, the human body and landscapes with abstract patterns like lattice structures and gouache ‘colour stains’.  Many of the gouache colour stains and drippings are incidental, but the lines and frames in the drawings are clearly orchestrated by the artist.  The finished images often cause a feeling of awkwardness; things do not always fit.  This steers the images clear of the superficial sentimentality that Kramer’s animals and portraits might otherwise evoke when observed at a glance.

“I think I am capable of making a nice drawing, but something has to happen on the paper.
There has to be opposition, a clash.”

Arno Kramer’s tools of preference are charcoal, pencil and water colours, and he experiments with coloured pencil and collage.  Smaller, existing drawings sometimes find their way into larger works, for instance as cut-outs.

“In many cases, making a drawing is no more and no less than inciting a derailment.”

At the beginning of the exhibition, Seamus Heaney’s poem In Time is presented.  This poem by Seamus Heany – the Irish poet who died in 2013 – was the departure point for or way towards new work for Kramer.  He never uses texts, by others or himself, as explanations of his work.  Rather, he uses them loosely as a source of inspiration; an underlying layer and theme to embellish on.  The title In Time is therefore Arno Kramer’s tribute to the poet and to Ireland, where he tries to work for some time each year.

Arno Kramer (1945) is a visual artist, curator and poet who gained renown for his drawings. He is also a strong proponent of drawing as a fully-fledged, autonomous form of art.  In All About Drawing (2011), curated by himself and Diana Wind, Kramer brought together 50 years of drawing through the works of 100 artists.

Arno Kramer’s work is included in LCGA’s Collection and the CODA collection.  Kramer continues his development through and with a constant, flowing drawing focus in and through which he keeps innovating himself.  The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication containing works Arno Kramer made after his solo exhibition LONGING (2014) in Museum De Pont in Tilburg.  A great number of no longer existing wall drawings are included in this book. The exhibition In Time traveled from CODA were it was on exhibit from January – April 2022.

http://www.arno-kramer.nl

For further information please contact artgallery@limerick.ie

 Installation views of exhibition display at LCGA

 Installation view South Gallery LCGA

Installation view of Ante Gallery LCGA