Dani Jakob

The pictures and sculptures of Dani Jakob resemble high-piled stranded goods of islands within the nothingness. These items can be found after floods in rivers or on beaches where uprooted trees with river stones, empty plastic bottles, old shoes and twiners, as well as plastic bags which have been intertwined in roots lay around welded together by destiny. This is where displaced forms of nature meet with witnesses of human civilization. In other words they unite into a danse macabre into which they have been forced by the power of nature's elements.

Jakob belongs to the young generation of German artists who approach their work in a lyrical way and are hence associated with the term Neo-Romantik. Her paintings have lost all traditional chains in this medium and found an enhanced language in the form of sculptural work and installations. To her, the writers and artists of the German romantic epoch are a textual influence source. This era interests her especially, regarding the emphasis on experience and emotional strength, the use of folksy and scenic elements as well as to fathom the boundaries in art forms.

The materials that Jakob uses are folksy, too. They range from silk painting, paper-maché and macramé to clay, scrap-wood and so on. In a non-hierarchic way she combines high- and low trivial aesthetics und contents. German Romanticism, esotericism, Hip-Hop, Heavy Metal and styles of the Far East and of the West are connected into a personal memory of the artist.

Dani Jakob, Les sept doigts de la main, 2004, Installationsansicht Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz/Basel.

 

Curriculum vitae
1973 born in Freiburg, Germany
2002 Meisterschüler bei Prof. Helmut Dorner
1996-01 Studium an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
 

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

 

Dani Jakob, Country Road, 2001/4, Mixed Media, 420 x 270 x 85 cm, Installationsansicht Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz/Basel.

 

Exhibitions, festivals (selection)

Solo exhibitions
2004 "Les sept doigts de la main", Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
2003 "Entrer dans la lumière", Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
2002

Galerie Fons Welters, Playstation, Amsterdam

 

Group exhibitions
2005 William Blake and Sons, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Kork (Irland)
2004 "Her Kind", The approach, London
  "Atomkrieg", Kunsthaus Dresden
  "strategies of desire", Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
  "Let the wind catch a rainbow on fire...", Filiale, Basel
2003 "actionbutton", Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der BRD, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, (K)
  "deutschemalereizweitausenddrei", Kunstverein Frankfurt (K)
  "there´s no land but the land (up there is just a sea of possibilities)", Meyer Riegger Galerie, Karlsruhe
  "painting on the roof", Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach (K)
  "Quetzalcoatl comes trough", Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach (K)
  "Falling Angles", Greene Naftali Gallery, New York
2002 "event horizon", Lothringer 13, München
  "The White Show", Uberbau, Düsseldorf
2001 "Circles° 5: Berlin - Montana sacra", ZKM, Karlsruhe (K)
"Der Wegelagerer", Meyer Riegger Galerie, Karlsruhe
  "Viva November", Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg (K)
2000 "Moon white future", Hobbypop Museum, Düsseldorf

"Sympathie", Montparnasse, Berlin

 

Publications
2004 Coomer, Martin: Her Kind, in: Time out, London no. 1771, 2004
  Battista, Kathy: Her Kind, in: Contemporary no. 66, 2004
2003 deutschemalereizweitausenddrei. Katalog zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung im Kunstverein Frankfurt 2003
  Hübl, Michael: Tauch ein in das Meer, in: BNN, 18.2.2003
  Painting on the Roof. Katalog zur gleichnamigen im Museum Abteiberg 2003
  Quetzalcoatl comes through, Revolver Verlag 2003 (Künstlerbuch)
2002 Kempkes, Anke: Rising Angels. In: Modern Painters, Volume 15, Number 4, 2002
 

Circles. Katalog zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung im ZKM, Karlsruhe 2002

 

Awards and grants
2005 Atelierstipendium Künstlerstätte Schloß Bleckede
2003 Kunstfonds e.V. Bonn
2002

Graduiertenstipendium der Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe