Live Performances will take place in the DANK Treffpunkt (1st floor gallery), where guests are encouraged to watch at any time during the session. Performances begin at 5:00pm and go until the artists are done painting (about 2 hours).

Performance dates:

Wednesday, May 4 – Sergio Gomez with Beate Axmann
Tuesday, May 17 – Joanna Pinsky with Beate Axmann

About the performances:

Beate Axmann has invited two Chicago-based artists to collaborate with her on this dynamic exhibition. Each artist will begin with their own large canvas. During this performance, there will be several exchanges of the two canvases – meaning that each artist will add to the other artist’s work! This encounter will make visible the meaning of creative intervention, trust and respect between the artists, and the differences in their artistic expression.

Spectators will have the unique opportunity to experience a very special art encounter – certainly not one that you see every day.

About the artists:

Sergio Gomez (website) is a Mexican-American painter with a studio at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, where he is the Director of Exhibitions. Gomez has had solo exhibitions in the United States as well as in Italy, Mexico, and Switzerland. He creates large-scale figurative abstraction paintings and charcoal drawings exploring the cycles of life, with his work often featuring the human form, usually anonymous and detached from a specific place or personal details. These human subjects exist in condensed fields of color and texture that often resemble natural forms. Gomez values public engagement with the arts, and has curated projects not only for art world events like ArtSpot Miami International Art Fair, but also for widely accessible local institutions like the Garfield Park Conservatory and the Chicago Park District. He also hosts a podcast called Art NXT Level, which helps artists navigate their careers.

Joanna Pinsky (website) is an artist based in Evanston, Illinois, and the founder and Artistic Director of the arts nonprofit Art Encounter. Working with acrylics, Pinsky creates two dimensional shaped paintings on canvas and gator board as well as rectangular works on paper. The shapes suggest a dynamic presence that gives a greater sense of reality to the images, and although flat, they give an illusion of depth. The rectangular works allow for a more traditional format and emphasize the unique quality of watercolor paper. Central to all of her work is color often applied in layers and incised to reveal underlying colors. Formerly abstract, her paintings now include images of architectural fragments and portraits of deceased heroes. In addition to frequent group and solo shows in Chicago, Pinsky’s work has been shown in NY, Santa Fe, Germany and Japan. She is a member of Space 900 Gallery, an artists’ collaborative.

Beate Axmann (website) invented the theme for this dynamic performance, LOST AND FOUND, which deals with the loss of control. Axmann is from the Black Forest region of Germany and works in acrylic paint on canvas, paper, and wood as well as ink on paper. Her subjects include people (especially women), nature, Germany’s Black Forest region, and the continuum of human cultures that she greets on her travels. Collaboration and cooperation with others are centrally important to Axmann.

RSVPs are encouraged but not required.

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German artist Beate Axmann’s concept “Sichtverrückt” translates roughly to gaze, shifted. It is a directive to look not once, not twice, but thrice, even four times. In today’s atmosphere of rising extremism and polemics (in Germany and abroad), it is critical to shift one’s gaze––to look at issues from multiple angles. Sichtverrückt is the overarching theme that Beate Axmann has used for the whole of her artistic work since 2018.

Axmann is from the Black Forest region of Germany and works in acrylic paint on canvas, paper, and wood as well as ink on paper. Her subjects include people (especially women), nature, the Black Forest, and the continuum of human cultures that she greets on her travels. Her works are described as deep and powerful, untamed, original and alive; in a specific way, figurative and abstract with a tendency towards symbolism. Axmann has had group and solo exhibitions in Germany, the United States, Austria, China, Turkey and Kosovo. Collaboration and cooperation with others are centrally important to Axmann.

Viewing hours:

April 22: Opening Reception

May 4: Live Performance with Sergio Gomez

May 12: Experimental Collage Workshop 1

May 14: Panel Discussion

May 17: Live Performance with Joanna Pinsky

May 18: Experimental Collage Workshop 2

May 20: Closing Reception

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Beate Axmann, Chicago, DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, Illinois, Joanna Pinsky, Lincoln Square, Live Performances, Sergio Gomez, Sichtverrückt.Lost and Found