With Villiam Miklos Andersen, Rosario Aninat, Cudelice Brazelton IV, Ella CB, Alex Chalmers, Hyunjung Choi, Conrad, Anita Esfandiari, Agnese Galiotto, Lorenz Ganthaler, Sebastián Garbrecht, Isidora Gilardi, Graham Hamilton, Jordan/Martin Hell, So Yeon Kim, Mariam Kvirikashvili, Kristina Lovaas, Rudi Ninov, Gabriel Possamai, Dudu Quintanilha, Sara Rossi, Su Xia, Tomomi Yamakawa and Miran Yang

From the classes of Monika Baer, Gerard Byrne, Judith Hopf, Hassan Khan, Tobias Rehberger, Willem de Rooij, Haegue Yang and former professors Peter Fischli, Douglas Gordon, Laure Prouvost, Amy Sillman and Josef Strau as well as former guest professor Wu Tsang and former interim professor Nikolas Gambaroff

Under the title The Whistle, this year’s graduates of the Städelschule gather together as if sounding a common whistle. A closer look reveals the diverse range of meanings of the whistle in its ambivalence—between warning and wake-up call, the shrill signal of the referee, the political significance of whistleblowing, or the innocent accompaniment of a song.
In the context of such a simultaneously unifying and separating moment, 24 graduates from 14 nations show the complexity of their artistic practice. Presented in a vacant office building from the early 1970s, the paintings, sculptures, video works, drawings, photographs, and installations are the result of several years of study in the cross-disciplinary classes. The graduate exhibition is regarded as the formal and artistic culmination of studies at the Städelschule and is an exemplary reflection of its core: the free artistic work in the studios as well as the intensive exchange with their professors and fellow students.
The Whistle thus also stands for the image of a reflection on endings and beginnings.

The exhibition is curated by Il-Jin Atem Choi and Alke Heykes.

The Whistle is made possible by major support from Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst. Significant support is provided by Allen & Overy LLP. Generous support is also provided by Graf von Westphalen, Sammlung Pohl gGmbH and Städelschule Portikus e.V.. Additional support comes from LBBW Immobilien Development GmbH und Solkim Art Handling.

Graduate Prize

1) Tomomi Yamakawa (Städelschule Portikus e.V.)
2) Cudelice Brazelton IV & Dudu Quintanilha (Sammlung Pohl gGmbH)

Jury

Christina Lehnert (Curator Portikus), Sarah Gilder (Sammlung Pohl), Dr. Ana Pohl (Sammlung Pohl), Prof. Yasmil Raymond (Rector Städelschule, Director Portikus), Monika Szewczyk (Director De Appel), Juliet Wagner (Städelschule Portikus e.V.)

Graduates 2021

Villiam Miklos Andersen

b. 1995, Denmark
Class of Judith Hopf

Villiam Miklos Andersen is an artist currently living and working in Frankfurt am Main. Prior to his graduation at Städelschule he studied at Jutland Art Academy (DK) and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (DK). Most elements of Andersen’s practice are characterized by an interest in the logistical systems of post-industrial society, how personal and private spheres are interwoven with and shaped by systems created by economic logic. Logistical streamlining systems also shape Andersen’s works when they adopt formats that are ready to be packed and palletized. He depicts lived life in the midst of a vast network of systems and ever-optimizing practicalities. Andersen’s work has been shown at Kunsthal Aarhus (Aarhus, DK), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taichung, TW), Danish Cultural Center – 798 Arts District (Beijing, CN). Andersen is co-founder of the exhibition platform Ceresbyen 1A and the artistic research project The Pawnbroker being showcased as part of the ruruHaus-program during documenta 15 in Kassel, 2022.

Consignment No 29 (ein Hubwagen on my ledger), 2021
Intaglio type digital halftone print, acrylic glass, acrylic nuts and bolts
80 cm x 60 cm x 4 cm

Consignment No 12 (ein großes Brot), 2021
A bread baked by Maria, handled by Solkim and served by the artist, butter, bread knife, oak wood, brackets, screws, EUR pallet
120 cm x 80 cm x 17,1 cm

Consignment No 13 (Earthly Delights), 2021
Acrylic glass, intaglio type digital halftone print, oak wood, plywood (poplar), battens (spruce), acrylic nuts and bolts, EUR pallet, brackets, screws
120 cm x 80 cm x 185 cm

Consignment No 5 (The Portal), 2021
Acrylic glass, oak wood, plywood (poplar), battens (spruce), acrylic nuts and bolts, EUR pallet, brackets, screws
1200 mm x 800 mm x 1850 mm

Hubwagen No 2 (a Solkim Art Handling Sup- ply Chain Unit), 2021
Pallet truck with logo
154,5 cm x 55 cm x 120 cm

Consignment No 28 (Franky on my ledger), 2021
Intaglio type digital halftone print, acrylic glass, acrylic nuts and bolts
80 cm x 60 cm x 4 cm

Rosario Aninat

b. 1993, Chile
Class of Willem de Rooij

Rosario Aninat is an artist living and working in Frankfurt, Germany. Her practice concentrates on researching the sculptural potential of standardized materials of industrial origin. Using sculpture as documentation, she reflects on determined thoughts from fragmentary and vague impressions that our immediate environment leaves on us. Her interest lies in pressing actions into matter, cutting off the object before it is ready to announce its purpose.

Frankfurt, February, 2021
Tin and zinc
Dimensions variable

Frankfurt, June, 2021
Forged steel threaded rods
300 x 18 cm

Frankfurt, May, 2021
PVC foil on wood
297 x 216 cm

Cudelice Brazelton IV

b. 1991, USA
Class of Haegue Yang

Cudelice Brazelton IV lives and works in Frankfurt. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work manipulates fabric, collage, industrial hardware, cosmetic products, and depictions of the body to explore the durability of distressed forms and surfaces. Selected solo and duo exhibitions include Bronzed from Silver, Sans titre (2016), Paris (2021); Recoil (with Dozie Kanu), International Waters, New York (2020); Violent Groom, Wschód (2020); Prune (with Nicholas Grafia), Shoot the Lobster, New York (2019); and Bounty, Jeffrey Stark, New York (2017). Selected group exhibitions include Vigil, Wschód and Emanuel Layr, Warsaw (2021); Cuerpos, Lodos Gallery, Mexico City (2020); The Struggle for Change, Murmurs, Los Angeles (2020); Ten Toes Down, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (2018); In Practice: Another Echo, SculptureCenter, New York (2018); and Le Colt est Jeune & Haine, DOC!, Paris (2018).

The Bouncer, 2021
Acrylic, paper, wood, rubber, paper on linen
Dimensions variable

Ella CB

Class of Gerard Byrne, Douglas Gordon, Laure Prouvost, Wu Tsang

Ella CB studied biochemistry and philosophy before turning to art. Her work involves various media and oscillates between video, sculpture and installation.

House, 2021
Video installation, 31:48 Min
Tablets, rear screen projection, projector, speakers, wood, concrete, welded metal frame, chains, glazed ceramics
Dimensions variable

Alex Chalmers

b. 1991, Aotearoa/New Zealand
Class of Haegue Yang

Alex Chalmers is an artist from Whangārei, Aotearoa / New Zealand. He currently lives and works between Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Rome. He received a BFA at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts and studied from 2019 to 2021 with Haegue Yang at Städelschule. Recent exhibitions include: (working title) gr_und Berlin; The true near by, KuLe e.V. Berlin; Individuating, Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin.

Untitled, 2021
Oil on metal sphere
Ø each: 20 cm

Shooting stars, 2021
Video 3:06 Min loop
Holographic LED display, metal ceiling bracket
50 x 20 x 140 cm

Ayyyyyyee?, Act series, 2021
Ink on paper printout
A4

Lamborghini, Act series, 2021
Ink on paper printout
A4

Scuola di Atene, Act series, 2021
Ink on paper printout
A4

Untitled, Act series, 2021
Oil on paper printout
A4 (double sided)

Untitled, 2021
Oil on linen
40 x 50 cm

Untitled, 2020
Elevator cabin
116 x 143 x 243 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil on linen
145 x 95 cm

Hyunjung Choi

b. 1989, South Korea
Class of Gerard Byrne

Hyunjung Choi studied in the film classes of Douglas Gordon (2016- 2018), Laure Prouvost (2018-2019) and Gerard Byrne (2019-2021) at Städelschule. Before her study in Germany, she studied painting in South Korea. She primary works on video and 3D animation, however, under the influence of her past study, her works also embrace drawing and painting.

Memories of Water, 2021
Video installation, 7:30 Min
Music edited and played by Sujin Kim

Drawing, Water and Moon jar, 2021
Video (without sound), 2:40 Min

Conrad

b. 1992, Germany
Class of Monika Baer

Conrad uses drawing to construct hybrid works made of organic and technical elements, mostly on textiles. Medium-wise he combines analogue techniques with processes based on 3d printing and DIY built CNC. His images are contemporary reflections on existential topics like energy, growth and fertility. After a BA in architecture Conrad studied under Katharina Grosse at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 2015 on. In 2018 he continued his education at Staedelschule in Frankfurt under Amy Sillman, Nikolas Gambaroff and eventually Monika Baer.

o.T., 2021
Acrylic, pigment, PLA on cotton
50 x 55 cm

o.T., 2021
Acrylic, PLA on cotton
110 x 130 cm

o.T., 2021
Acrylic, pigment, PLA, copper on cotton
60 x 50 cm

o.T., 2021
Acrylic, pigment, PLA, copper on cotton
60 x 60 cm

o.T., 2021
Acrylic, pigment, PLA, copper on cotton
60 x 50 cm

o.T., 2021
Acrylic, pigment, PLA on cotton
200 x 60 cm

Anita Esfandiari

Class of Judith Hopf

Anita Esfandiari is an artist currently living and working in Frankfurt am Main. She received a BA in painting from the Art and Architecture University of Tehran, Iran, and studied from 2018 to 2021 with Judith Hopf at Städelschule. Anita Esfandiari’s practice involves a wide range of media including sculpture, video, installation, printmaking, and painting, which she uses to bridge the gap between the free zone of art and the social context it actually belongs to. For her, art making is a way to make imaginative realms reflect on the socio-political and economic issues that are indispensable to her life and practice.

Fountains, 2021
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable

Goose Running on Water, 2020
Silkscreen print
Each 50 x 70 cm

Waterfall, 2016
Marker on Paper
15 x 20 cm

Agnese Galiotto

b. 1996, Italy
Class of Willem de Rooij

Agnese Galiotto is a painter and a filmmaker. Her work explores the relationship between human identity and the natural world from an intimate perspective. Specifically, Galiotto’s practice faces the impossibility of an actual identification with the other, and it opposes single narratives—all the solitary individuals she portrays are in the process of becoming protagonists of fragmented visual narrations. Since 2020 she has participated in the residency program Dolomiti Contemporanee (IT) and is an annual fellow of Künstlerhilfe Frankfurt. Galiotto is part of the group exhibition And this is Us at the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2021) and one of her works is permanently shown at Palmengarten Frankfurt since 2020.

Foris (forest, outside), 2021
Fresco
20 x 3 m

Lorenz Ganthaler

b. 1995, Italy
Class of Haegue Yang

After attending the San Francisco Art Institute for two years, Lorenz Ganthaler transferred to the Städelschule in 2016 to complete his studies. His works have taken on the form of wall-mounted and free-standing sculptures that are both robust and delicate, light and grave, fleeting and stationary at once. They are located within a spatiality of thin relief and the temporality of a spliced second; often depicted are gaps, slits and holes as indicators of potential passageways. Ganthaler considers his works as precise articulations of vague thoughts, embedded wit in a speculative-empirical thinking structure which oscillates between inner escapism and figurative analysis. Previous work phases were inspired by writings of thinkers with a shared interest in the convergence of immanence and transcendence in instances of immediate experience, as conceptualized in diverging epistemologies of the extreme.

Vapes and dreams posing as solid matter, 2021
Resin, steel
160 x 160 x 120 cm

Sebastián Garbrecht

b. 1988, Colombia
Class of Monika Baer, class of Niklas Gambaroff, class of Amy Sillman

Sebastián Garbrecht lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. From 2007 to 2012, he studied Graphic Design in the University of Buenos Aires, and assisted at different informal art workshops in Argentina. Often using ordinary materials to create paintings and objects, his work explores ideas of how architectural and psychological space is perceived.

Breathing Exercises, 2021
Cardboard, acrylic paint, aluminium foil, electrical component
3 parts, each approx. 15 x 15 x 40 cm

Untitled, 2021
Dye, papier-maché, copies, aluminium on canvas
30 x 38 cm

La Visita, 2021
Dye, papier-maché, copies, aluminium on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Untitled, 2021
Dye, papier-maché, copies, aluminium on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Untitled, 2021
Dye, papier-maché, copies, aluminium on canvas
30 x 40 cm

The Stranger, 2021
Dye, papier-maché, copies, aluminium on canvas
28 x 40 cm

Isidora Gilardi

b. 1992, Chile
Class of Willem de Rooij

Isidora Gilardi gathers images, objects, and stories in arrangements that delve into the ways in which meaning, memories, affection, and aversion are embedded in matter. She also works as a gardener.

O, 2021
Pigment inkjet print and Tiger‘s Eye stone
Dimensions variable

Graham Hamilton

b. 1988, USA
Class Monika Baer, Nikolas Gambaroff, Amy Sillman

Graham Hamilton works with images and sculpture to create memorial spaces. His work is grounded in the practices of painting and collage, although the forms of the works are often atomized from these practices. In photographic and installation works, Hamilton utilizes collecting, like composing or curating, as a mode of re-organizing material for reflection. He studied with Monika Baer, Nikolas Gambaroff, and Amy Sillman from 2018-2021 at Städelschule and has previously studied at New York University, 2007-2011. Hamilton co-founded and ran the artists gallery Violet’s Cafe from 2014-2017. Most recently he has participated in the exhibition Moving Plants at the Frankfurter Palmengarten (DE).

Bins - blue hour, 2021
Mdf, glass, ceramic, variable botanical material
Dimensions variable

Homesick, 2021
Unique mono print
Acrylic ink on mould paper
100 x 140 cm (framed - artist’s frame)

Field, 2021
Unique mono print
Acrylic ink on blue black poster paper
92 x 129 cm (framed - artist’s frame)

Picture, 2021
Unique mono print
Acrylic ink and acrylic on acrylic plastic
100 x 100 cm (framed - artist’s frame)

Untitled, 2021
Unique mono print
Acrylic ink on pappe and washi paper
78,5 x 104,5 cm (framed - artist’s frame)

Jordan/Martin Hell

Class of Monika Baer, class of Gerard Byrne

Jordan/Martin Hell (he/him) is a Black trans writer and artist. He attended Cooper Union School of Art (NYC) & Städelschule (DE) in Monika Baer’s Painting Class & Gerard Byrne’s Film Class.

Untitled works related to CONSTANT VIOLINS I & II by Jordan/Martin Hell

So Yeon Kim

b. 1995, South Korea
Class of Monika Baer

So Yeon Kim lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. She received a BFA from Cornell University in 2018 and studied at Städelschule, Frankfurt and Bard College, NY, afterwards. So Yeon uses the media of painting, printmaking, and collages to explore ideas about (imperfect, fugitive, awkward, active) bodies and where they are situated on the canvas and in a room.

Untitled, 2021
Mixed media
153 x 113 cm

Untitled, 2021
Acrylic, etching ink, wire on concrete
35 x 27 cm

Untitled, 2021
Acrylic, etching ink, pigment, tape, wire, plastic on paper
100 x 36 cm

Untitled, 2021
Acrylic, etching ink, pigment, tape, wire, plastic on paper
100 x 36 cm

Mariam Kvirikashvili

b. 1993, Georgia
Class of Haegue Yang

Mariam Kvirikashvili’s artistic practice revolves around sculpture, intervention, and site-specific work, enabling her to explore how bodies interact with the immediate space they dwell in. Often, her works are shaped according to the particular placement, and the materials of her sculptures attempt to imitate the properties of the materials they resemble, without necessarily succeeding.

Untitled, 2021
Multichannel sound installation, 14:22 Min

Kristina Lovaas

b. 1992, USA
Class of Judith Hopf

Kristina Lovaas works predominantly with ceramics, fabric, and installations. Her recent work investigates ideas of affection, humor, and the process of recording touch. She completed a dual degree from Cornell University in New York with a BFA in Fine Arts and BA in Art History. Lovaas’ work has been shown and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Goethe-Institut in Bulgaria, and numerous other group exhibitions in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Aschaffenburg and Wiesbaden.

Emma, 2021
Satin, silk paint, string
240 x 85 cm

Nose No. 9, 2021
Ceramic
32 x 24 x 29 cm

Nose No. 5, 2021
Ceramic
41 x 26 x 27 cm

Nose No. 11, 2021
Ceramic
34 x 29 x 34 cm

Nose No. 10, 2021
Ceramic
35 x 29 x 29 cm

Nose No. 7, 2021
Ceramic
44 x 34 x 26 cm

Ephilia, 2021
Satin, silk paint, string
198 x 66 cm

Nose No. 6, 2021
Ceramic
40 x 32 x 26 cm

Cornelia, 2021
Satin, silk paint, string
198 x 66 cm

Rudi Ninov

b. 1992, Bulgaria Class of Monika Baer

Rudi Ninov works and lives in Frankfurt am Main. Before that, he earned a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Recent exhibitions include Liste Showtime Pop-up, Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv (2020), ORBIT, Messeturm, Frankfurt am Main (2020), NOT CANCELLED East x South, Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv (2020), Sariev Selfisolation, Sariev Gallery, Plovdiv (2020), Good Weather, Ginsberg Galeria, Lima (2020), The Artist Collector’s Dream (a nice thing), Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (2020), Gravitiy Works Only When You Look Down, Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, Sofia (2019), FOTEL, Sotheby’s, Frankfurt am Main (2019). He is also the recipient of the Linklaters LLP Prize, Germany (2020) and Cultural Perspectives Foundation Scholarship, Bulgaria (2019).

Untitled (hopscotch stone), 2021
Acrylic on canvas
130 x 87 cm

Untitled (gum swirls), 2021
Acrylic on canvas
130 x 87 cm

Untitled (slow tune), 2021
Acrylic on canvas
130 x 87 cm

Untitled (Fêtes 1971), 2021
Acrylic and collage on card
Dimensions variable, ongoing series

Gabriel Possamai

b. 1996, Brazil
Class of Laure Prouvost, Gerard Byrne

Working primarily with painting and drawing, Gabriel Possamai’s practice consists of an ongoing reflection about productivity and conspiratorial thinking. Through a variety of pictorial and discursive modes, Possamai constructs his body of work in a way in which elements such as scale, repetition and spacing are as important as individual pieces. In 2018, he obtained a BA in Painting from Escola de Música e Belas Artes do Paraná, Brazil and studied at Städelschule in the classes of Laure Prouvost (2017–2018) and Gerard Byrne (2019–2021).

32752 fresh brains, 2021
Oil, oil pastel, tape and paper on paper
46 x 56,5 cm

Persona Non Grata, 2021
Wood, lamp, metal handles
Dimensions variable

J, 2021
Pencil on paper
85 x 120 cm

Palestine, 2021
Wood, glass, metal and lamp
33 x 28 x 102 cm

Or Garden, Or Father, 2021
Wood plates
78 x 118 cm

Oooo, 2021
Pencil on canvas
58 x 58 cm

Dudu Quintanilha

b. 1987, Brazil
Class of Gerard Byrne, class of Willem de Rooij

In his projects, Quintanilha proposes performances as a possibility to connect ideas and bodies. He researches and develops ideas about performativity, and the possibilities of performance in specific contexts. He is interested in how vulnerability, memory and imagination create possibilities to understand the idea of being in process, of being “partial”. His works were shown at Kunstraum Riehen (Basel, 2021), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen (Düsseldorf, 2019) Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2019), Kanal Centre Pompidou (Brussels 2018). He was nominated for the ars viva prize 2022.

INCAPAZ (Incompetent), 2021
Video, 32:55 Min
With the collaboration of Carolina Mendonça and Tomás de Souza in voices

Sara Rossi

b. 1981, Italy
Class of Monika Baer, class of Amy Sillmann

Sara Rossi studied at Städelschule from 2018 to 2021 with Amy Sillmann and Monika Baer. Before she graduated from Università degli Studi di Trieste with an MA in Anthropology and Speech Philosophy, focusing on ways to convey cultural and female identity in writing, before joining the class of Trisha Donnelly at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2015. Rossi’s work operates as the residue of thoughts-and-memories, akin to a photograph of a mental process or a meditation that has been transferred through the hand onto canvas. Her research focuses on the emergence and creation of visual meaning. Rossi sees her approach as a sort of “mental metabolism”, in which forms are made manifest on the canvas, less interested in the illusionistic representation of reality, and more in the way paintings and images are able to convey a system of thinking.

Untitled, 2021
Oil and chalk on wooden panel
37,5 x 22,5 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil on linen on board
41,5 x 31,5 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil and pigments on wooden panel
41 x 30,5 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil and pigments on wooden panel
15 x 30 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil and pigments on wooden panel
40,5 x 51 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil and pigments on wooden panel
40,5 x 51 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil and pigments on wooden panel
40,5 x 51 cm

Untitled, 2021
Oil, pigments and pencil on wooden panel
42,5 x 52,7 cm

Su Xia

b. 1987, China
Class of Tobias Rehberger

Su Xia studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Nürnberg from 2015 to 2017 and she has been studying from 2017 to 2021 at the Städelschule with Tobias Rehberger. Su Xia’s practice involves a wide range of media including drawing, painting, performance, video, sound, installation, sculpture, photography and architecture. Her work has been presented in institutions and commercial exhibitions in Germany, Italy and Portugal.

How to heal?, 2021
Mixed technique on paper
Each 28 x 38 cm

Tomomi Yamakawa

b. 1993, Japan
Class of Hassan Khan, class of Peter Fischli, class of Josef Strau

Functionality, “affordance” and signifiers—how people and objects interact in everyday life. That interest comes from Yamakawa’s background studying information design. Her older works are a documentation of discovering the hidden functionality in daily life. This starting point brought her to the problem of documentary and fiction, realistic and artificial. She thinks feelings of significance are special, and thinks the little gap or the oddness made by an alternative method is beautiful. For her recent solo show in 2021 in Denmark she presented Tomomi’s group show. She uses different media and materials.

Before eyes after eyes, 2021
Installation
Wood, staple, thread, hook, acrylic on hard- board, tissue, thick paper, tracing paper, text
Dimensions variable

Supporting actors, 2021
Eraser, stone, painted particle board, dirt
207,2 x 260 x 2,5 cm

Miran Yang

b. 1984, South Korea
Class of Haegue Yang

Miran Yang is a South Korean artist working primarily in painting, but also active in video and installation. She studied at the University of Fine Arts Essen and at Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main. Her work is based on fairy tales, tragic stories, memories of childhood and a melancholic atmosphere. She imagines that everything that exists in the world has a soul, it oscillates between human and non-human beings. Anthropomorphism, which is often used in fairy tales, projects human characteristics onto the abstract and non-human so that they are perceived as living objects. Her emotional and psychological states according to the change in weather will affect the hue or atmosphere of the painting. Intuitive decisions are often made in the work process.

Sky, Wind, Star and Poetry, 2021
Oil on canvas
190 x 160 cm

Black Sun, 2021
Oil on canvas
80 x 100 cm

Yellow Sky, 2021
Oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm

Erlkönig, 2021
Oil on canvas
150 x 200 cm

In a Dreamscape, 2021
Oil on canvas
360 x 220 cm

Protagonist, 2020
Oil and oil pastel on canvas
160 x 180 cm