The Gallerie David in Bielefeld Presents "Thomas Schiela ~ From Near and Far"

Written by Franz Guderian Wednesday, 20 April 2011 02:06

Bielefeld,Germany - "Thomas Schiela: From near and Far" is a new exhibition of the German artist's large scale watercolor paintings at the Gallerie David in Bielefeld from April 30th through May 27th 2011. A wall with a Thomas Schiela painting becomes an adventure. Its vast and usually photo-realistic quality pulls the viewer into a world that is at once very familiar and utterly scary. For Thomas Schielas' works are witnesses to life in all its detail. With a camera, he goes, as he says, "on photo-safaris", later selecting the images that he will work up as large-scale watercolor paintings. Each requiring painstaking hard work and virtuoso attention to detail.

The exhibition entitled "Near and Far" at the Galerie David plays with the term "near and far" on two levels. Thomas Schiela's works on show either represent the nearby (paintings of German subjects, including the Moers international jazz festival crowds, friends etc) or the far-away (Marrakech, Bangkok and Angkor), giving a physical and geographic meaning to the phrase. However, "near and far" also refers to the viewers perception of the works. Seen from a distance, they appear to be photographs, as the viewer approaches the canvas, they clearly become paintings.



Thomas Schiela was born in 1966 in Duisburg, in the Ruhr area of Germany and lives and works in Xanten. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and the Art Academy Münster, where he obtained his maters degree in 1996. Schiela has been exhibiting in group and solo shows since 1994. Visit the artists website at ... http://www.schiela.de/ The Galerie David in Hans-Sachs-Strasse 4, Bielefeld was founded in 1990. The focus of the gallery is on current trends in painting, young Israeli avant-garde and experimental photography. The gallery shows their artists at international art fairs (including Art Cologne) and give exhibitions at home and abroad. Visit the gallery's website at ... www.galerie-david.de

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