Past Residents
Past Resident2015: Alfred Kordelin Foundation
Henni Alftan
Henni Alftan is interested in the mimetic relation of paint as material and the image. She aims to discover the moment when the mere paint on canvas transforms into a resemblance of an object – when our gaze interprets and forms the mix of materials into an idea. Thus, her paintings are as much about the painting itself as an object, cherishing the physical qualities of the painting, its history and objecthood. Alftan’s brushstrokes are never improvised, but always made according to a thorough plan. She likes to think of this method of predetermined strokes as manneristic, in the sense of seeking to represent art itself and the artifice of the actual mark-making.
Henni Alftan (born 1979, in Helsinki, Finland) moved to France in 1998 where she graduated from Ecole Nationale d’Art de la Villa Arson and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Her work has been exhibited in both Finland and France in venues such as Galerie Anhava, Forum Box, Galleria Huuto, Amos Anderson Art Museum, and Galerie Claire Gastaud. Her works are present in public collections such as at the Helsinki Art Museum, Amos Anderson Art Museum, and the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art. She has received the support of institutions such as Arts Promotion Centre of Finland, Swedish Cultural Foudation in Finland, Finnish Fund for Culture, and Centre Nationale des Arts Plastiques etc.
Henni Alftan, Eyes On You, 2015, Oil on canvas, 29 × 36 in. (73.66 × 91.44 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Finland
Past Resident2015: KdFS Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Bastian Muhr
The boundary between picture and nonpicture is constantly readjusted in Bastian Muhr’s large-scale systematic drawings, (…). No drawing constitutes a completely regular pattern; otherwise it would be a nonpicture, like wallpaper. Nor do these drawings convey distinct images but move along the boundary between no-longer-picture to not-yet-picture and being a picture after all. This is not only due to their systematic composition but also to their workmanship. Inspecting the hand drawing more closely reveals its essential features, its slight deviations from any standardization. (…) These drawings resemble an organism that regularly grows yet with slight variables, with small organic variations in the system. (Excerpt from text by Dieter Daniels, “The System as Motif“, 2014)
Bastian Muhr (1981 in Braunschweig, Germany) loves to draw. He grew up in Berlin and moved to Leipzig in 2004 to study Painting and Graphic Arts at the Academy of Visual Arts (HGB) where he graduated in 2010. Since then, he has exhibited regularly in Germany and abroad. Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include: Drawings, Museum Wiesbaden, 2016; and Folge der Linie bis zum Elefanten, Galerie b2 Leipzig, 2014. Muhr’s works are in the collections of Berlin State Museums / Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig; Dresden State Art Collections/Kunstfonds, Dresden; German Federal Bank, Frankfurt; and Museum Angerlehner, Thalheim bei Wels, Austria.
Events & Exhibitions
2016 ISCP Benefit Auction
September 21–October 5, 2016
Bastian Muhr, Untitled (BM1407), 2014, Multicolored pencil (rainbow pencil) on paper, 51 × 40 in. (129.54 × 101.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Germany
Past Resident2015: Edge of Arabia and Art Jameel
Sara Ouhaddou
Artistic trends – in architecture and design – evolve in a globalized world exposed to a broad spectrum of influences. Sara Ouhaddou is interested in specific local circumstances, determined by cultural, historical and geographical conditions. Her project MadinMedin looks at the transformation of local crafts in Morocco, and re-conceptualizes the relationship between local and cultural identity within a globalized context. Alongside this, the project considers the survival of traditional crafts in modern Moroccan society.
Sara Ouhaddou (born Morocco) graduated from the Ecole Olivier de Serres in Paris. Her research looks at the diverse problems facing craftsmen now in Morocco including the difficulties in the generational transmission of knowledge, and the need to put in place guilds in a context where mass tourism has gradually confined exceptional craftsmen to the realization of objects without quality.
Sara Ouhaddou, Bou-Oumlil, 2015, White wool and fabric, 59 × 78 in. (149.86 × 198.12 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
