An exhibition “Pencil for Two” will open at the Meno Parkas Gallery (Dorotheenstr. 22) on Friday, the 28th of May at 6 p.m. Exhibition will feature pencil drawings of German-Italian artist Flavio Apel and graphic drawings of German artist Michael Stalherm. Exhibition will be on view until June 26.

Flavio Apel

Flavio Apel is of German-Italian descent and grew up until the age of seven in a villa in a picturesque town not far from Rome. The pencil drawings on paper initially make the viewer doubt his own perception, for they are hardly recognisable as drawings. Photographically precise, hyper-realistic and thus almost surreal, they appear in the first impression. Delicate lines, sometimes almost invisible, that resemble a hair more than a drawing. Hours, days and sometimes weeks pass until the gossamer lines become recognisable shapes. Pencil, paper, time, patience, doubt and loneliness.

"I come from a family of artists. My father studied visual communication, poster, graphics and photography at the HBK and later worked there as a lecturer. My grandfather and my mother have artistic backgrounds and are totally into art. My childhood was of course turbulent at times, and marked by the complicated relationship with my father. I always found peace in drawing, and so art became my haven of peace and retreat. I have always drawn, but in 2014 I found myself at a personal turning point where I decided to make art my profession. I see myself and my work too critically and it cost me a lot to present myself and my work. I was worried in the beginning because I didn't know where to go with my realism."

"It is extremely important to me to let my works go beyond depictive realism. Realism is not the goal or the means to express something. By working on things empirically, I can open them up more precisely and thereby build my own stories around them. It is not about painting something that exists, that would be craft and technique. It is about revealing something deeper. For some paintings, especially portraits, I have to resort to photographs, but I usually alter them. Most of the objects, however, I often have directly in front of me. That's why I like to draw chocolates, which I eat directly after drawing. It could have been broccoli, but what can I say, chocolates are just nicer."

Michael Stalherm

With the exhibition PENCIL FOR TWO, the Meno Parkas Gallery presents the graphic work of the Berlin artist Michael Stalherm. It provides an insight into the versatile use of his pencil technique in recent years.
With meticulously fine strokes and exclusively through the use of pencil, Stalherm pursues drawing. The process of creation with needle-sharp pencil is combined with the application of graphite dust. This has resulted in a series of high-performance drawings and a special preference for cotton wool and cotton buds (Q-tips).

The distinctive feature of his sheets is not only the perfection of his craftsmanship, which he masters with a joy for detail, but beyond that the recognisable desire to push the medium of drawing to its limits. Stalherm tells stories in pictures that stimulate their viewers through hyper-realistic collages of motifs.

On his technique, Michael Stalherm says: "Even as a child I sewed dolls' clothes, first by hand. In the tailor's studio of my mother, who had a fashion shop, I then learned how to use sewing machines. I was particularly fascinated by the technique of quilting, how thread was laid on thread at high speed. Some drawing processes are quite similar, especially hatching. The carefully sharpened long pencil lead reminds me of (m)a sewing needle. One can also think of a spool of thread, wound up with the potential drawing at the end of the pencil. The fictitious thread is gradually unwound through the drawing process. It turns into a stroke, becomes a line. This becomes part of a motif. Seen in this way, drawings are thoughts sewn together and quilted intuitions from an in-between world."

Exhibition curator: Michael Stalherm

More information about the artists:
www.flavioapel.com | www.michael-stalherm.de

29 MAY - 26 JUNE 2021

Meno Parkas Gallery (Dorotheenstr. 22, 40235, Düsseldorf, Germany)

Gallery's working hours: II-VI 14-18:30 or by appointment +49 172 706 1247

Information in German Here