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Through the elusive simplicity of both form and colour, the work of Kim Bartelt mediates on the ephemerality of the world and the poetic contradictions that lie at the heart of contemporary human experience. Her method of layering paper sheets of varying degrees of thickness onto canvas, produces a unique hybrid of painting and sculpture that contrasts the clarity of the forms with the fine, intimate detail of the textured paper. Creating canvases that draw the viewer inward, to reveal a pulsing inner landscape, that capture the often fragile connection between the seen and the unseen, the permanent and transient.

 

Her use of a consciously restrained visual vocabulary, consisting mainly of squares and rectangles, harness complex emotional states into seemingly controlled, harmonious compositions. A process that echoes the inherent dichotomy in her art-making, that strives for a sense of compositional stability despite being filtered through the intensely personalised prism of their creator. That diametric expression is reinforced by her deliberate choice of colour. Neither quite opaque nor excessively vibrant – her canvases maintain a luminosity that suggest a certain weight despite being suffused with light, like the skies and architecture in the paintings of Far Angelico and Piero Della Francesca, two major influences on the artist.

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According to the writer and curator Lorena Juan, Bartelt’s ability to make every step in her creative process tangible, amounts to a “study of the poetics of the connective tissue of life…” revealing the “silent mind maps of the support infrastructures running in the backdrop of our existence.” This isn’t just restricted to the spiritual domain but responds to the world she observes around her; intuitively reflecting humankind’s contemporary detachment amidst the dizzying complexity of our globalised, hyperconnected age.
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Born in Berlin, Germany, Bartelt initially planned to study architecture but a series of events led to her taking up art history in Paris, France before enrolling onto an art Foundation year at Parsons Paris. After moving to the US and finishing her studies in Fine Art at Parsons School of Design in New York, she took a job painting sets for large-scale commercial campaigns. It was there that she began taking an interest in the discarded sheets of paper and began slowly incorporating it into her art practice; making impossibly open, minimal collages that through their delicate translucence appeared to transcend their own materiality.
Since returning to Germany in 2003, Bartelt has continued working with canvas and paper and in recent years her explorations into space and volume have evolved into large-scale sculptural works – megalithic-feeling structures that are often made of deceptively fragile, packing material and papier-mâché.
The artist has had numerous solo exhibitions most notably at the Cadogan Gallery, Milan in 2023 and Cadogan Gallery, London in 2022. In that same year, her work was a prominent feature in An Endless Curve – Art Perspectives III at the Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin as well as A Double Presentation, Wilhelm Hallen #2, Berlin in 2021. Bartelt has exhibited all around the world including Mexico City, Ghent, London, Chicago and Berlin. In 2019 she completed artist residencies at Numeroventi 2019 in Italy and Joya AiR 2019 in Spain. Bartelt has been the subject of a number of features including Repubblica, 2023, Capital Magazine 2022, AD Germany, 2020 and Wall Street Magazine 2020.

 

 

 

EXHIBITIONS

 

upcoming:

 

  • 3 Person Show with Adelheid de Witte; Annamarie Ho, Kim Bartelt, Cadogan, L o n d o n,  Jan 18,  2024

 

  • MiArt  M i l a n , Art Fair, April 2023 with Cadogan Gallery

 

  • Solo Show, Cadogan  L o n d o n , May 2024

 

 

2023

Volk x Paradise Room, Group Show, B e r l i n, Sept 2023

with Thomas Zipp, Peter Krauskopf, Ariane Hosemann, Felix Schröder

 

Break Easy, Solo Exhibition, Cadogan Gallery, M i l a n

May 17 – June 30, 2023

 

Through The Walls, Group Show, Cadogan  L o n d o n, Jan/Feb 2023

with Mimi Jung, Perla Krause, Edoardo Dionea Cicconi, Andreas Diaz Anderson & more

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2022

Soft Architectures, A Group Show, Barn Studio, P o t s d a m, Aug/Sept 2022

with Pablo Benzo, Bertram Hasenauer, Lawrence Calver, Davina Andrea Deplazes, Amelie Riech & Johannes Schön

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An Endless Curve – Art Perspectives III, B e r l i n, May 2022

Circle Culture Gallery

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Art Herning Art Fair with Bjorn Gundorph Gallery, D e n m a r k, Mai 2022

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Stillleben, Solo Exhibition

Cadogan,  L o n d o n,  Jan-Feb 2022

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2021

A Double Presentation, Wilhelmhallen Hallen #2 , B e r l i n  Sept 2021

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A Temporary Space, Studio Ima, M e x i c o  C i t y  Mai 2021

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2020

Group Show Studio Ima M e x i c o  C i t y , Group Show, Nov  2020

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Moving Traces 04, Atelier Ecru Gallery G h e n t , Belgium, Group Show, Nov 2020 – Jan 2021  

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Define The Line, Online Group Show curated by Alessandro Stein, Oct 2020

  

PR17, Open Space, B e r l i n , Group Show, Sept 2020  

 

Cadogan Contemporary, L o n d o n , Group Show, Aug 2020  

 

Cadogan Contemporary, L o n d o n , Three Person Show, March 2020  

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Boiling Point, Group Show, B r i s b a n e  Australia 2020

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2019

Baldon B e r l i n , Kim Bartelt  x  Yellownose Studio, Dec 2019 – Jan 2020

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Warbling Collective, L o n d o n , ’Perhaps we should have stayed’, Group Show, Nov 2019  

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GIFC at Hotel Paris, B e r l i n , Group Show, organised by ZeroZero Gallery, L A , USA, May 2019

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2018

‘Let Me Know Before You Arrive’, Group Show, Warbling, L o n d o n , UK, Oct 2018

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Anonymous Drawings, Group Show, Galerie im Körnerpark, B e r l i n , July – Sept, 2018

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2017

‘Paper’,  Solo Exhibition, Hettler.Tullmann, B e r l i n , Juni 2017

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2016

‘A fleur de peau’, Solo Exhibition, Galerie Lacke&Farben, B e r l i n , Dec  2015 – Jan 2016

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2014

Berliner Liste, Art Fair, Galerie Lacke&Farben, B e r l i n , Sept 2014

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2013

Berliner Liste, Art Fair, Galerie Lacke&Farben, B e r l i n , Sept 2013

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’Right Here’, Solo Exhibition, Galerie Lacke Farben, B e r l i n , May 2013

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2003

The Whole Ball of Wax, Group Show, 2003, Women Made Gallery, C h i c a g o , USA

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2000

‘Wintertales’, Solo Exhibition, Villa d’Este, C o m o , Italy

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ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Joya, Almeria, Spain

September 2019

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Numeroventi, Florence, Italy

March/April 2019

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PUBLICATIONS

 

Sight Unseen, June 2023, Deborah Shapiro

 

La Repubblica, May 2023, Francesca Molteni

 

Ignant, May 2023, Clemens Poloczek for Ignant Productions

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AD China, Dec 2022 print publication

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Die Kunst – Women in Art (May 2022), print as part of Capital Magazine, Lorena Juan

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Styler Mag Korea, January 2021, print publication, Anna Gye

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Milk Decoration, Jan 2021, Sophie Bouchet 

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Sight Unseen, Dec 2020, Sean Santiago

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AD Germany, April 2020, Tereza Bratkovic

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Anniversary Magazine, March 2020, Anniversary Team

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Milk Decoration Magazine, February 2020, Karine Monie, print publication #31

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Wall Street Magazine, January 2020

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Sight Unseen, December 2019, Jill Singer

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Sight Unseen, October 2019, Malin Ebbing

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FoA, February 2019

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Tagesspiegel, June 2013, Friederike Höll

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EDUCATION

Parsons The New School of Design, New York

BFA in Fine Arts

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Parsons The New School of Design, Paris

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Icart, Institut des Carrières Artistiques, Paris

Studies of Art History & Art Management