ASTRID KLEIN
TRANSCENDENTAL HOMELESS CENTRALNERVOUS

From 24 March to 2 September 2018, the Deichtorhallen will present a comprehensive overview of the work of the German artist ASTRID KLEIN (b. 1951 in Cologne). Astrid Klein is one of the most distinguished artists of her generation, has received numerous awards, participated in the Venice Biennale in 1986, and held a professorship at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. Klein works in a variety of media, including drawing, photography, text, painting, installations, and sculpture. She is considered a pioneer of experimental, large-scale photowork.

This exhibition transcendental homeless centralnervous brings together works from all phases of the artist’s oeuvre, from her collages of the 1970s and ’80s to installations from the 1990s to current works, and will span three floors of the building. Ten works from the Falckenberg Collection will also be featured. The presentation of the work Endzeitgefühle, which was created in 1982 as part of the Woche der Bildenden Kunst and was shown beginning in 1986 over an extended period in a tunnel to the U2 line at the Hauptbahnhof, will create a special connection to Hamburg.

Since 1978, Astrid Klein’s paintings, collages, photographs, and installations have questioned, deconstructed, and renewed the relationship between image and text. Beginning in the early 1990s, she has also continued this intensive examination in her large-scale neon sculptures and light works. The form and appearance of the text play at least as crucial a role in the works as the content.

Klein created her first pictures with text while studying at the Werkkunstschule in Cologne. In the late 1970s, the artist began using adapted photos and film stills as material for collages. Greatly influenced by the New Wave film movement in France and the genre of photo comics, in her works Klein mainly deals with political issues and the representation of women in media and film. Klein often uses text as a central, formal element: in her collages she combines and alters her own texts with those of philosophers, scientists, and writers.

Astrid Klein lives and works in Cologne and has received numerous prizes for her work, including the Käthe Kollwitz Prize from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin (1997) and the KUNSTKÖLN Prize in 2001 (now known as the Cologne Fine Art & Antiques Prize). From 1993 to 2017, the artist held a professorship at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.