David Clarke, Karl Fritsch, David Bielander, Rudolf Bott and Paul Kooiker are united not only by their classical training but also by their free play with different, sometimes unusual materials and optics. All five artists avoid a dogmatic demarcation between crafts and fine arts and instead skilfully try to combine these two poles.

David Clarke assembles tableware made of fine silver into new autonomous objects. In doing so, he often breaks the form, reduces and reverses conventions so that spoons, bowls and candlesticks become something new and unusual. Clarke allows traditions only a serving role; he composes his works solely from the fragments of this rich tradition, which is given a new relevance in ever new additions and twists.

Karl Fritsch crafts his jewelry from the finest materials, but in his work he constantly questions what jewelry actually is. Fritsch clearly distances himself from production solely as a status symbol. He has initiated a paradigm shift in jewelry design with his works and is not concerned with a superficial use of precious materials. Rather, Fritsch combines them with his own unconventional working process, sometimes dispensing with polish and thus consistently questioning what is all too self-evident.

David Bielander explores the boundaries of jewelry. His pictorial objects, animal sculptures, or trompe-l’œil objects are mostly unspectacular at first glance, but they turn out to be tremendously complex comentaries on the idea of jewelry today at second glance. Bielander is a master of humorous twists; his works play with reality and are full of subtle irony. So is the snake that has just swallowed a whole rabbit and yet puts itself around the shoulders of its wearer like a trophy.

Rudolf Bott contrasts precise, geometric shapes with flowing, organic forms made of metal. In his aluminium table Bott traces the archetype of a table, the idea of an object and leaves the traces of the working process during aluminium casting visible everywhere. They bear witness to the artist’s search for truth. Rudolf Bott is not concerned with distilling a new form or creating a different variant, but with tracing the essence of things.

Paul Kooiker uses his iPhone camera to create irritating and fascination photographs with a tonality all of their own. Mostly in grey and sepia tones, the Dutch photographer creates his own pictorial world in his studio. Isolated, Kooiker captures people, animals and objects on his display, giving everything a moment of immense significance. Parallel to the exhibition in Munich, we are showing his solo show “Smooth Cotton” in Waldkirchen until May 7, 2023.

5 Gentlemen doing things
David Clarke, David Bielander,
Karl Fritsch, Rudolf Bott and Paul Kooiker
February 13th–March 31st, 2023

Opening Hours:
Mo–Fr 10am–1pm and 2–6pm
During Munich Handwerksmesse we are open all days from 10–6pm
and by appointment