Galerie Michael Janssen in Berlin

Opening on Saturday, September 29, 2007, 7 – 9pm

Till Gerhard (born 1971) lives and works in Hamburg, where he studied painting until 1998.
His works have featured in many exhibitions, including those at the Kunsthalle Hamburg and at the Saatchi Gallery London. After a solo exhibition at the Cologne branch in 2006, the Michael Janssen Gallery now looks forward to hosting Till Gerhard‘s second solo show in Berlin.

Although the scenes depicted in Till Gerhard‘s pictures appear to create an impression of reassuring cosiness, prima facie at least, they elicit a sense of unease when viewed at closer range.
Ostensibly harmless prints, based on photographs depicting young people at festivals and atmospheric sunsets, are infused with ominous undertones in terms of their artistic execution via deformed faces, dark, sinister skies and the spectral hovering of mysterious luminous entities.
Gerhard ousts these hippy icons from their pedestal of 1960s tranquillity by means of a casual artistic gesture in clear tones, causing them to topple into the here and now via an impalpable shift into the uncanny.

Till Gerhard, born in 1971 in Hamburg; 1998 Graduate School for Applied Sciences / Faculty of Design Hamburg; solo exhibitions (extract): 2006 Galerie Michael Janssen Köln, Stellan Holm Gallery NY, 2005 Galleri K Oslo; group exhibitions (extract): 2007 Seestücke Kunsthalle Hamburg, The Triumph of Painting The Saatchi Gallery London, 2005 security check Arndt&Partner Zürich.