Hubertus Hamm – vi-ew

KORNFELD Gallery is very pleased to present the exhibition vi – ew with new works by the Munich-based artist Hubertus Hamm.

With his art, Hamm creates something magical and alive. Under the umbrella term vi – ew, the exhibition brings together objects from twelve different groups of works. All of them deal with the fleeting image. A work of art can only come into being when it is looked at. The viewer becomes part of the artwork by entering into an interaction between the objects and themselves.

In Portrait XI, Hubertus Hamm refers to the “Black Paintings”—abstract black paintings created by artists of the New York School in the USA since the 1950s. Viewed from the side, Hamm’s works appear as closed, dark, opaque surfaces. This opacity dissolves when the square work is viewed frontally. As one moves from one side of the picture to the other, different surfaces appear, fragmentarily reflecting the space and the viewer. This can feel as though one’s own life cycle is being mirrored: emerging from darkness, seeing oneself, and then diving back into darkness. In this series, Hamm takes the mirror selfie ad absurdum, as the camera can only see and photograph itself.

In his Moulded Mirror series, reflections blur. Using reflective metal panels, the artist counters his fascination with photography. Here, too, he becomes an unintentional director. Without a viewer, there is no image—unlike photography, which always depicts something.

Hubertus Hamm began exploring the parameters of photography early on, testing its boundaries. He has always understood his photographs as independent objects rather than representations. By superimposing different layers and by tearing, folding, and bending the material, he moved into three-dimensional space. Metal, glass, ceramics, and other unconventional materials are used as artistic media.

Portrait IX is a frontal portrait of a woman. On the right side, Hamm has scraped away the paint pigments, exposing the canvas. Like an afterimage created when looking into the sun and then closing one’s eyes, the face faintly continues on the white surface. The scraped pigments are collected in a small heap below the work, alongside the scalpel used by the artist for this intervention.

In his works, Hubertus Hamm leaves the traditional paths of classical photography and often even renounces the medium in which he was originally trained. By exploring and transgressing the boundaries of his medium in terms of three-dimensionality and materiality, he reflects on the nature of the image and the act of image-making itself.

His works have been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, the Yuan Art Museum in Beijing, the SPSI Art Museum in Shanghai, Team One in Los Angeles, and the Nir Altman Gallery in Munich, as well as at numerous international art fairs. His works are currently on view in the exhibition Reflections at the Museum of Concrete Art in Ingolstadt.