GALERIE DROSTE
KATERNBERGER STRAßE 100
42115 WUPPERTAL
During his artistic career of 30 years, the German artist Heiko Zahlmann (1973) underwent several artistic processes and dedicated himself to continual development. To signify the written word as source of his initial creativity is elementary for the understanding of his oeuvre. Moreover it is important to consider the environment of his creative beginnings, as the public space was his studio, the city his canvas, letters were his artistic content and spray cans his tool. Finding the way into the actual studio, was the beginning of a process which continues until today and whereby the artist allowed the two-dimensional letters becoming sculptural objects. Raw material like concrete replaced the paint, natural generated shadows replaced painted effects. Zahlmann banished colour perception in favour of a nearly visual prehensile haptic, that is based on the outlines of letters and which sacrificed itself for the cause of pure shapes.
The exhibition Words become Things shows clearly that nowadays the natural resources became the centre of his work. Moved and formed out of the movement of letters, the material develops into the object, which unfolds the story of the artist speechlessly. Whilst Zahlmann released himself of readable information and transferred flatness into haptic materiality, he gained an uncompromising mode of practise, which doesn’t excuses mistakes and whose finale can only be defined by the artist himself. But within this challenging radicality Zahlmann found his artistic freedom, which makes his artworks so present and which is why the objects are able to tell its very own powerful narration.