Galerie Burster berlin is pleased to present the two artists Kristiane Kegelmann and Christian August for the first time in a duo exhibition. As different as their approaches may be on first sight – Kegelmann works with installations and sculptures of different materials and surfaces, August's medium to largeformat paintings deal with the interplay of monochrome blue color fields and gray-colored areas – they both speak a common experimental, abstract and energetic visual language..

In Kegelmann's sculptures and installations extending over the floor, the walls and sometimes even ceilings, steel, concrete, glass and aluminum meet organic material and surfaces. This contrast creates a field of tension in which hard, sleek material – made for eternity – meets natural transience. In this contradictory interplay, some works even require the active participation of the observer: for example, in a strangely mechanically buzzing box, edible elements can be discovered – this smell, soft chunks, perhaps they are chunks of chocolate? Kegelmann explores the relationship between object and observer on several levels, visually and three-dimensionally – haptic and olfactory stimuli can be a part, too. With the inclusion of ephemeral materials, Kegelmann’s work remains deliberately unfinished and in constant transformation – the knowledge of the transience of individual elements makes the status quo in her exceptionally aesthetic objects so appealing.

Christian August's abstract expressive color compositions depict a consequent play of intuitively set black, white and gray shades and monochrome color surfaces in his signature radiant shade of blue. Almost like a white noise, an indefinable noise of shades of gray lies beneath and next to the monochrome blue colored areas, which sometimes seem to act as a counterpart to the complex background noise. In the interplay of greyish and clearly defined blue areas, soft pinks and greens are mixed here and there. Following his pictorial architecture, August will present a site-specific wall collage that transcends the screen and moves into the gallery space using various textile materials. Whether in the gallery space or on the screen: August creates aesthetically balanced compositions of color and shapes, inviting us into his very own extraordinary visual world. BUT DIFFERENT opens up a dialogue between two artistic positions and two different approaches, each individual in their respective search for a balance of form and color playing between control and chance; They give different answers to similar questions and are surprisingly close to each other. Somehow the same – but different.

Christian August (* 1977 in Halle (Saale), Germany) studied at Burg Giebichtstein Kunsthochschule Halle as a student of Gerhard Schwarz. Under his alias KID CASH, August has been active as a urban artist since the 1990s. He is the founder and member of the artist group KLUB7 founded in 1998. In 2017 he received a scholarship from the Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt. August lives and works in Berlin. Kristiane Kegelmann (* 1990 in Munich, Germany) initially completed an apprenticeship in patisserie, where she worked in a leading position at the traditional Viennese court sugar factory DEMEL.

Kegelmann has been active as a sculptor since 2014. In some of her works, she intentionally faces her inner conflicts between the two areas of activity in fine arts and patisserie. Her work has already been exhibited in the MAK Museum of Applied and Contemporary Art, Vienna, and numerous publications such as Vogue Germany and Time Magazine. Kegelmann lives and works in Berlin.