Galerie Gilla Lörcher

Contemporary Art

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Bettina Sellmann

US PAINTINGS at Galerie Gilla Loercher | Temporary

Installation Views

Photo: Cordia Schlegelmilch, courtesy Galerie Gilla Loercher

Installation view: Bettina Sellmann at Galerie Gilla Loercher Temporary 2015

Photo: Cordia Schlegelmilch, courtesy Galerie Gilla Loercher

Photo: Cordia Schlegelmilch, courtesy Galerie Gilla Loercher

Installation view: Bettina Sellmann at Galerie Gilla Loercher Temporary 2015

Photo: Cordia Schlegelmilch, courtesy Galerie Gilla Loercher

Photo: Cordia Schlegelmilch, courtesy Galerie Gilla Loercher

Installation view: Bettina Sellmann at Galerie Gilla Loercher Temporary 2015

Photo: Cordia Schlegelmilch, courtesy Galerie Gilla Loercher

Works

Acrylic on canvas 
<br>200 x 250 cm
 
Photo: Bettina Sellmann

Skipping Rope, 2014

Acrylic on canvas
200 x 250 cm Photo: Bettina Sellmann

Acrylic on canvas 
<br>45 x 40 cm 

Photo: Bettina Sellmann

Untitled, 2015, aus der Serie US PAINTINGS

Acrylic on canvas
45 x 40 cm Photo: Bettina Sellmann

Acrylic on canvas 
<br>45 x 40 cm 

Photo: Bettina Sellmann

Untitled, 2015, aus der Serie US PAINTINGS

Acrylic on canvas
45 x 40 cm Photo: Bettina Sellmann

Press Release

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Galerie Gilla Loercher is excited to announce the opening of a second gallery location on a temporary basis.

Galerie Gilla Lörcher is pleased to present Bettina Sellmann’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, titled US PAINTINGS. The show will coincide with this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin and is happening in two spaces simultaneously.
Location 1: Galerie Gilla Lörcher | Temporary, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin
25 April -15 May 2015
Location 2: Galerie Gilla Lörcher | Contemporary Art, Pohlstr. 73, 10785 Berlin
1 May – 19 June 2015

What does "US" stand for, with which one usually associates the United States?
Bettina Sellmann has been living in Berlin since 2010, but before that she spent 11 years in New York City. Even if she avoids ubiquitious American pop- connotations in her choice of motives, the artist stresses the importance of the American metropole on her painting: "Way more important than narrative references is the influence of a place on the painting practice, for instance by way of light and atmosphere. Otherwise you would not have to go or live there in person, since everything else is easily accessible on the net." Read in this way, US would indeed be a hint towards a period in her biography.
There is also another interpretation. In her new paintings Sellmann incorporates childlike shapes and colors. Motives appear that are evocative of characters in the kidult consumer culture, which naturally she submits to a multifaceted painting style. In this way, the title also sounds reminiscent of the Us in “Toys R Us“.
The artist herself explains that US means "Unidentified Self". – A contradiction? Self portraits that are hardly or not at all recognizable as such. What is it then that signifies them as such? What is identity at all – today, personally and culturally? Bettina Sellmann of course negotiates this artistically in a painting style of light and lightness which makes it easy to open up to these images. And maybe it is just in this way that for some people the English word US turns into a WE.

Bettina Sellmann studied from 1992 to 1997 at Städelschule Frankfurt, Germany with Jörg Immendorff, Christa Näher und Thomas Bayrle (Meisterschülerin). She also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Hunter College in New York City, where she lived and worked for 11 years. Since 2010 she lives and works in Berlin. She was awarded the Skowhegan Residency and the DAAD Jahresstipendium (German Academic Exchange Service Year Stipend), among others.
Her works have been shown in numerous galleries and institutions internationally (Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston; University Art Museum, Albany, NY; Derek Eller Gallery, NYC; Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, NYC; Fredericks Freiser Gallery, NYC; American Fine Arts, NYC; Gavin Brown Passerby, NYC; Greener Pastures Gallery, Toronto, Canada; Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles; Vienna Art Foundation; Villa Jauss, Oberstdorf; Galerie Frank Schlag, Essen; Wonderloch Kellerland, Berlin; Galerie Wolfstädter, Frankfurt a.M.; Galerie Gilla Lörcher | Contemporary Art, Berlin; among others) and are part of international private and public collections, such as the Olbricht Collection and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.