24.11.2011-7.1.2012*

*24.12.2011-7.1.2012 nur nach Voranmeldung / by appointment only

Over the years Raffaella Chiara has made her mark as a versatile graphic artist/illustrator. At first mainly working with conventional drawing techniques on paper, she gradually added expansive murals or installations created from (offset) printed wallpaper. However, her secret passion has always been printmaking; the current exhibition presents, for the first time, a sizeable group of her prints. She applies traditional techniques such as aquatint, drypoint and etching in very unconventional ways and, by using all variations of intaglio printing, she creates unique and marvelous prints. Raffaella Chiara transforms single subjects, modifies them during the printing process, adds peculiar colour accents and hence breathes fresh air into printmaking. Almost every copy is one of a kind, few are printed in very small editions. Using several printing plates in up to three printing processes, she creates variations in astounding nuances; Raffaella Chiara speaks a distinct language and allows her works a lot of room to develop within the creative process. The printing plates constitute the starting point of her works – the requisites, from which the sheets evolve. She contrasts her graphic works with new, large-scale drawings. Recently the motifs even expand beyond the pictures edge, onto another sheet, and create fascinating diptychs.

The artists employs a vast repertoire of motifs, which oscillates in the large space of art between realism and abstraction. Sometimes the shapes clearly seem to be designed, sometimes they seem to be amorphous or organically grown. The pencil lines can be fine and distinct, or thick and frayed. Raffaella Chiara develops most sheets with vectortype lines, whose grids can be highly condensed. The often surreal compositions are full of hidden topics. She succeeds in visualizing miraculous worlds of thought with pencil and crayon lines or fine colorations. Raffaella Chiara is a storyteller, driven by the urge to establish new references, with which she steps into the debate on drawing of recent years.

Bernhard Bischoff