Ulrike Theusner( born 1982 in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany) is a German artist working primarily in drawing and printmaking. She studied at École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts à la Villa Arson in Nice, France and graduated in 2008 from Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. Amongst others, her work was exhibited in groupshows at Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice, Neues Museum Weimar and several solo shows in New York, Berlin, Frankfurt, Toulouse, Paris and Shanghai. She lives and works between Weimar and Berlin.
Works
My work ranges between painting, etching and drawing. I´m focused on large sized ink drawing and Drawing series. Ink on paper is radical – it forces me to decide quickly and allows me to use vivid expressive lines without the possibility of return.[1]
Her luscious watercolors, ink drawings and oil paintings are juicy with pictorial depth and detail while her characters burst and bubble with energy. Yet, despite these surface delights, her content is serious, dark and timely. Theusner’s images recall Goya’s grotesqueries and Otto Dix’s brutally seductive social caricature. Many of her characters wear historical costume, like ghosts staging a play, but she also directs sharp attention towards today’s political and social inequalities. Using wit and beauty, her work highlights contemporary culture’s poisonous absurdity and underlying moments of horror.[2]
Solo exhibitions
2018 Ulrike Theusner. painting and graphic,[3] Kunsthalle Harry Graf Kessler, Weimar(D), to visit from Sept. 29 to Nov. 11, 2018
2018 SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH,[4] Galerie Sabine Knust , Munich (D), July 5 to September 8, 2018
2017 ENDSPIEL,[5] Galerie Bunker-D, in Kiel, Germany
2017 THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS,[6] ACC Weimar,[7] Germany
The « Best of all possible worlds » – Leibniz formula published in 1710 is Ulrike Theusner starting point for a reflection on our living conditions and our living together. What are we missing in the best of all possible worlds? Can we live without utopias - political, social, economic or environmental? What about our self-image in the best of all possible worlds?
2016 THE GASPING SOCIETY,[8] Anger Museum, Leipzig, Germany
2016 Ulrike Theusner - A Rake Progress,[9] Galerie Richter, Lütjenburg
2011 Nitro Circus, Galerie Pierrick Touchefeu, Seaux, Paris
2011 Weird Feelings, Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt
2011 Galerie Majorat, Villeneuve-Toulouse
2010 Ten Seconds of Fame, Galerie Wagner und Partner, Berlin
2010 East Of Eden, Galerie Rothamel, Erfurt
2009 Showroom, Galerie Soardi, Nizza
2008 The Waste Land, Bauhaus Universität Weimar
Group exhibitions
2020 vielfalt! 30 Künstler*innen aus 30 Jahren Jenaer Kunstverein. Jubiläumsausstellung[12]
2019 Aggroschaft – Marc Jung & the Gang:[13] Ausstellung des Erfurter Künstlers Marc Jung mit Benedikt Braun, Till Lindemann, Moritz Schleime und Ulrike Theusner
2019 not everything means something, honey - Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig:[14] Tina Bara / Alba D'Urbano, Anna Baranowski, Christiane Baumgartner, Maja Behrmann, Birgit Brenner, Stef Heidhues, Laurette Le Gall, Kristina Schuldt, Jana Schulz, Hanna Stiegeler, Ulrike Theusner
2018 Junge Kunst aus Thüringen - Mannheimer Kunstverein:[15] Konstantin Bayer, Benedikt Braun, Enrico Freitag, Marc Jung, Nora Klein, Paul-Ruben Mundthal, Adam Noack, Stefan Schiek, Ulrike Theusner
2018 offen Vol. 2 - Galerie EIGEN + ART Berlin:[16] Ulrike Theusner with Yang-Tsung Fan, Marion Fink, Zora Janković, Raul Walch, Justin Mortimer, Andreas Mühe, Alexander Wolff.
2017 Roter Oktober. Kommunismus als Fiktion und Befehl[20],[21] Neue Sächsische Galerie, Chemnitz, Allemagne
The exhibition is part of the commemoration of the revolutions of February and September 1917 in Russia. It includes works by the following artists:
The Blue Noses, Carlfriedrich Claus, Fritz Duda, Alwin Eckert, Erich Enge, Hubertus Giebe, Moritz Götze, Wasja Götze, Norbert Hinterberger, Via Lewandowsky, Martin Maleschka, Florian Merkel, Olaf Nicolai, Haralampi G. Oroschakoff, Osmar Osten, A.R.Penck, Uwe Pfeifer, Ulrich Polster, Julian Röder, Ulrike Theusner, TMOMMA, Sergej Voronzow, Norbert Wagenbrett, Brigitte Waldach, Willy Wolff, Axel Wunsch, Silvio Zesch, ZIP
2017 The Promised Land,[22] Ulrike Theusner and Jazz-Minh Moore, Galerie Rothamel Erfurt, Germany
Ulrike Theusner and Jazz-Minh Moore met in 2010 in New York. They founded the collective "GutBox" and presented under this label several exhibitions in the United States. "Promised Land" is their first cooperation in Europe.
Like "The Gasping Society" - another series of Ulrike Theusner presented in parallel at the Anger museum in Erfurt (Germany), "The Promised Land" focuses on the loss of benchmarks, the drift of justice towards self-righteousness and to the perdition of people in a complex system.
Jazz-Minh Moore says, «This body of work begins with a series of paintings juxtaposing an abandoned American diner with the new multi-billion-dollar «Biospheres» currently under construction in Seattle. The America of our grandparents’ generation is being abandoned for new, high-tech or exotic options. Many people have been left behind. This is not new news, but it has become magnified with our recent (2017) election. »
2015 Alterity, The Lodge Gallery New York
2015 Printmaking Symposium, Tapetenwerk Leipzig
2014 Des Grands Yeux Morts, Galerie Dukan Leipzig
2014 Les Fleurs du Mal, The Lodge Gallery New York
2014 Hotspot, Treize Paris
2014 Fremde, Bauhaus Museum, Haus am Horn Weimar
2013 Le jardin souterrain, Station Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris
2012 The Double Dirty Dozen, Freight&Volume, New York
2010 First Exhibition, EKE Studio, Brooklyn, New York
2010 European Contemporary Print Triennial 2010, Toulouse
2009 Visite, Kunstverein Speyer
2009 Traits Noir, Musée des Beaux Arts Nizza
2007 UMAM, Nouvelle Biennale , Union mediterranéenne pour l´art moderne , Nice
2006 Ne pas toucher le contur, Galerie d´essai, Villa Arson , Nice
Awards
2019 selected for the sponsorship programme of „NEW POSITIONS“ [23] at ART COLOGNE 2019
Rose-Maria Gropp reports in the Kunstmarkt pages of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.) of April 12, 2019: ... "New Position" at the Eigen + Art gallery: Ulrike Theusner paints soul out of the body, with pastel bright colors on paper (from 1,200 euros); the entire booth was sold during the first hours of preview.[24]
2013 IGG Graphic Award
2011 Work Fellowship Bildende Kunst „Art Regio“
2010 1. Price of European Contemporary Print Triennial Toulouse
Publications
2017 THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS, ISBN978-3-945482-05-6, 21x21cm, 35 pages, JALARA Publishing
^, ACC Weimar Web: to visit from May 21 until Aug. 4th 2017 at ACC Weimar, Germany
^, THE GASPING SOCIETY Web:THE GASPING SOCIETY, Nov.10 - Jan.22, 2017 at the Anger Museum in Leipzig, Germany
^, Ulrike Theusner - A Rake Progress Web:Ulrike Theusner - A Rake Progress, Oct.15 – Nov.19 2016 in Lütjenburg (Germany): Galerie Richter selected works out of three recent series:A Rake´s Progress inspired by William Hogarth's series of painting.
Hey! The tragic life of desperate artbitches describes the difficulties of young artists running out in search of recognition.
Gasping Society shows the contradictions of a society where everyone may lose his humanity.
^, Welcome to Paradise Web:
The exhibition Welcome to Paradise at the Rothamel Gallery (Frankfurt / Main, May 2016) is showing, together with Dana Meyer sculptures, works of each of the three series: American Landscapes, Hey! The tragic life of desperate artbitches and Welcome to Paradise, and processes ranging from ink on paper for the main painting Hortus Conclusus (300 x 250 cm), through woodcuts for American landscapes and also ink and acrylic on canvas for Hey! The tragic life of desperate artbitches.
^, offen Vol. 2 - Galerie EIGEN + ART Berlin Web: From Juli 11 to August 25, 2018, the gallery presents younger or already established positions of artists who have impressed and accompanied us over the last few months
^, Sonderpräsentation zum Gallery Weekend 2018 Web: April 25, to April 29, 2018 : Konstantin Bayer (installations), Enrico Freitag (drawings, paintings), Nina Röder (photography) and Ulrike Theusner (prints, paintings)
^Ruth Habermehl & Ulrike Theusner Web: The eighth ff15 exhibition, from November 3 to December 15, 2017 features improbable, grotesque and mystical scenes, for the series of etchings, mixed media paintings by Ulrike Theusner like for the collages by Ruth Habermehl who says "to paint with scissors".
^, art-in.de Web:Roter Oktober., Autor: Dr. Paul Kaiser, Oct. 11.2017 for the blog art-in.de
^, THE PROMISED LAND Web:THE PROMISED LAND, Jan. 7 until Apr. 22, 2017 Galerie Rothamel Erfurt, Germany
^, NEW POSITIONS at ART COLOGNE 2019 Web: For ART COLOGNE 2019 (11-14 April), a jury of experts composed of Susanne Titz, Stefan Kobel, Bogomir Ecker, Andreas Schleicher-Lange und Thomas Weber, selected 14 young artistic positions including Yann Annicchiarico, Nadja Bournonville, Joëlle Dubois, Tobias Hoffknecht, Paul Hutchinson, Thilo Jenssen, Felix Kiessling, Lone Haugaard, Linda Matalon, Márton Nemes, Laura Schawelka, Fiona Valentine Thomann, Eleanor Wright and Ulrike Theusner
^, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.) on April 12, 2019 Web: ..„New Position“ bei Eigen+Art aus: Ulrike Theusner malt sich die Seele aus dem Leib in ihren knallbunten impulsiven Pastellen auf Papier (von 1200 Euro an); schon bei der Preview war die Koje zum ersten Mal ausverkauft.
