What's It All About

Born in Saarbrücken in 1970, lived and worked in Berlin from 1992 to 2017. In 2017, the artist moved back to the Saar.

Since 1999 freelance visual artist (painting and object design, experimental arts) and since 2017 also working as a media designer.

Student of Anna Adam (painting, stage design, installation).

Gabriel Bur’s work includes a variety of techniques in art painting and object art. Conceptually and experimentally, he creates artworks ranging from three-dimensional paintings to composed abstract-plastic assemblages. His studies with the painter and installation artist Anna Adam led to a new combination of his different ways of working and perception.

From the beginning Gabriel Bur has been working in design projects on large formats and special murals for social events, including the development and implementation of the artistic brand identity of Desperados – Tequila flavoured beer in the gastronomy in Germany and Switzerland; graphics for the American Heart Association, Kansas City/USA, design of a discotheque in Varna/Bulgaria, for the OLMA fair in St. Gallen/Switzerland and the production of a conceptual installation for the WWF Germany.

 

 

Table of content:
• Spielwerk, an assessment by Jana Ritter
• Exhibitions
• Projects
• Gabriel Bur: The standstill of the moment
• Quotes by the artist

Spielwerk*

Jana Ritter, art scholar and freelance artist:

“If I give new nourishment to the art-historically catalogued “surrealism”, I look for it in the visualised motifs, their assemblage, the image subverts (me). The surrealism of a Gabriel Bur comes along more calmly.  In the folded hands, button eyes, sitting postures, gazes; soft, pasty .... “Spielwerk” for pausing. The familiar in a new context. Apparently mundane pictorial objects - superficially “cute” , representational, almost illustrative, a “classical” middle ground can be omitted in order to let the colour perspectives of the background stand out - shadows - drop shadows, core shadows - in a documentary exact snapshot.

There they are sitting now .... Smaller landscape paintings in the manner of Magritte or Dali .... Still lifes of toys in large format; slowly, menacingly closer the moment of the sight. .... cheerful abysmalness .... Construction and deconstruction in seeing, perceiving, hearing, feeling. Precisely related questions and themes in the work of Gabriel Bur. Comprehensible, uneasy.”

 

_{* Spielwerk is a neologism made by Jana Ritter from the German words Spiel (play) and Werk (work).}

 

Exhibitions

2005

Berlin, Skoda Centrum [S]
Bernau, Open Gallery [S]
Berlin, The garden terra-architectura [S]
Berlin, KAP Gallery [G]

until 2006

preferred exhibitions in public spaces, in order to be able to bring his work to the attention of a wide variety of viewers.

2006

Saarbrücken, Gallery Liel [G]

2007

Berlin, OFFline Gallery [S]
Berlin, Künstler-Kultur-Worknet [G]
Aachen, Ludwig Forum for International Art [G]
Berlin, WWF, bycatch campaign [A]

2008

Berlin, natural'mente im Makrozentrum Berlin e.V. [S]
Berlin, Schokolade-hoch-drei, OFFline Gallery [G]
first design for SIGG Swiss Bottle/ Switzerland [D]

2009

Hamburg, Volksbühne [S]
Berlin, exhibition project "download100" [G]
Berlin, Temporäre Kunsthalle Friedrichshain [G]
Berlin, WWF, Klimapack [Installation].
Villach / AT, exhibition project "download100" [G]
Freiburg, Art Mondial Art Fair [F]
Stolberg, Museum Zinkhütter Hof [G]
Berlin, Aula GS on the Tempelhofer Feld [W]

2009–2012

Berlin, Cosmetic Institute Diana Wiards [P]

2010

Berlin, Blum & Partner [S]
Berlin, Hotel Aquino, Transfiguration of Faith [W]
Berlin, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week [Catwalk]
Berlin, Urania, World Of Art Exhibition, Urania, Berlin [G]
Berlin, Starke Foundation, Christmas Exhibition [G]
Saarbrücken, Clothing + Art [Catwalk]
Frauenfeld / CH, SIGG Swiss Bottle, Enter The Dragon [D]

2011

Berlin, Viktoria – Wings Of Berlin, AVS-hostel [W]
Berlin, Wedding Dress [F]
Istanbul, Kumpanya 62 [G]
Berlin/ Herten, Coca-Cola, Relentless: Lives of the artists [A]
Berlin, WWF, Uberwald [A]
Berlin, Blum & Partner [S]
Berlin, Starke Foundation, Christmas Exhibition [G]

2012

Berlin, Wedding Dress [F]
Berlin/ Herten, Coca-Cola, Relentless: Lives of the artists [A]
Berlin, Noyman Miller Gallery [S]
Berlin, NEMONA Conceptstore [G]
Frauenfeld / CH, SIGG Swiss Bottle, Tribal Mask [D]
Berlin, Porcelaingres Kreuzberg [G]
Berlin, Laloquita Angels meet TrendMafia [F]

2013

Berlin, Showfloor Berlin [G]
Berlin, NEMONA Pop Up, Karstadt Hermannplatz
Berlin, NEMONA Showroom [G]

2014

Berlin, the Gallery @ Fashion Week [Catwalk]
Berlin, 191. Berliner Durchreise @ Fashion Gallery Berlin [F]
Berlin, Fashion Exchange @ Postbahnhof [Catwalk]
Berlin, NEMONA Pop Up, Karstadt Hermannplatz
Berlin, Diamond Beach [Catwalk]
Berlin, Textile Art Berlin [F]
Berlin, Berliner Durchreise @ Fashion Gallery [F]

2015

Berlin, Textile Art Berlin [F]
Berlin, Fashion Hall Berlin, Fashion Week [Catwalk]
Berlin, Stars Of Fashion [Catwalk]
Berlin, Bread & Butter [F]

 

[S] solo exhibition - [G] group exhibition - [P] permanent exhibition -
[W] wall design - [A] public event - [F] fair - [D] design

Projects

2000–2015

Works in large formats and special murals for social events in Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria [W].

Beginning of the exploration of the design of consumer goods and painting on clothing, initially as a result of commissions.

2004–2008

Participation in projects for children (Deutscher Kinderschutzbund, Bunter Kreis Aachen, AgainstChildPorn Organization) [G]

2006

1001faces^© – mounted reliefs of real and dreamlike faces and masks

2007–2008

1001faces^© – Monolithic models based on the form of archaic herms.

2008

The Pufamuffel, the being of the city discovers the being of the city [A].

2010–2016

Berlin My Inspiration^© – Kunst zum Tragen. Art to Wear [art concept]

Since 2017

Media concept and design @ Capulet & Montague, Saarbrücken, Germany [D]

 

[S] solo exhibition - [G] group exhibition - [P] permanent exhibition -
[W] wall design - [A] action - [F] fair - [D] design

 

Member Künstlersozialkasse until 2017
Member VG Bild-Kunst Urh.-Nr.: 154 24 65 since 2005
Member Kuenstler-Kultur-work.net e.V. 2005 to 2008
Member New Cultural Initiative at Kottbusser Tor Berlin in 2008

Gabriel Bur: The standstill of the moment in the apparent stopping of time

I have been artistically active all my life and in 1999 I made art – painting and object design – to my profession. In creative and teaching contact with Anna Adam, I have created and developed new combinations of perception.

In the resulting range of painting and object art, I use a variety of techniques to deal conceptually and experimentally with “Spielwerk” in surreal snapshots, bas-relief to the trinket of life and the topography of time in the form of abstract-plastic assemblages that disturb and give pause.

Jana Ritter, art scholar and freelance artist writes about my painting:

“Gabriel combinates, leads his figures, playfully, lets (our perception) play. His used colours, materials, forms lend themselves to a new design, create their own dimensions in the picture. The traditional pictorial space takes on a depth that cannot be explained solely by bizarre – yet familiar – colours, materials (“teddy bear”) or “usual” background composition ... How confidently he also combines different working techniques, viz. painting techniques, e.g. airbrush with mixed media techniques, pastel, etc., shows a joy of experimentation that forms "in advance" from the material, lets it emerge, lets it go along – disturbing-conceptual creation in the original sense.”

I develop my works from a very individually worked out plasticity of the respective material, whereby the thematic of the concept independently seeks out its materials and colours for the work. In the spontaneity of the creative process, everyday objects and materials are often integrated into the work in order to shape both the concept and the character of the artwork. The viewer should be left with plenty of freedom for his or her own interpretation in order to develop a certain identification with the picture.

“As an artist, I am a mirror of society and reflect emotions that I encounter every day. In my works I express what I miss in the interaction with each other. – Even if my works seem – superficially – to be children's book illustrations, it is the incomprehensible depth that touches.”

Gabriel Bur, 2007

 

“Appearances are deceptive and yet they are so meaningful in this day and age. It is important to me that the viewer begins again to question the apparent, to see behind it.”

Gabriel Bur, 2008

 

“In Berlin I discovered my art, my inspiration - that's where I found my wings and learned to fly - and I would like to pass that on.”

Gabriel Bur, 2010