Annette Merkenthaler

Photography - P, Installation - I, Objects - O,
Group exhibition - G, Catalogue, book - C

  • 2023

    Immermoos und Efeu

    (ever moss and ivy), photographs, installation, Sound piece by Anna Schütten, Merdinger Kunstforum, Merdingen am Tuniberg, D

    P, I

  • 2021

    Licht und Schatten werfen

    (projecting light and shadow), photographs, installation, Galerie G, Dr. Gudrun Selz, Freiburg, D

    P, I

  • 2020

    mitten,

    (amidst), with Anna Schütten, joint installation, black/white photographs on polyester, painting on cotton duck in acrylic and ink, sound, AKKU X, Künstlerbund Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, D

    P, I

  • 2019

    Stand heute, (Status Today) / Room 8 – Schichten I, (layers I),

    PEAC Museum (Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle), Freiburg, D

    P, I, O

  • 2019

    Stand heute, (Status Today) / Rooms 4 and 5,

    PEAC Museum (Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle), Freiburg, D, und zusehen wie das Gras wächst, (and see how the grass grows), 2013, Wasser zur Wiese, (water to meadow), 2019

    P, I

  • 2019

    Stand heute, (Status Today) / Rooms 1 – 3,

    PEAC Museum (Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle), Freiburg, D, photographs, 1997 – 2019, concrete- and ceramic objects, 1986 – 1998, (plates 2 and 3 by Bernhard Strauss)

    P, O

  • 2018

    Anorganische Gewächse,

    (inorganic growths), photography and installation, Galerie G, Dr. Gudrun Selz, Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2017

    de l’eau et de l’eau,

    (water and water), light and shadow glass 2015, January in Venice 2017, photography, installation, Gallery „Transformers“, Brüssel, B

    P, I

  • 2016

    Photography,

    Van der Helst Plein Exposities, Etalages bij Cleerdin + Hamer, Amsterdam, NL

    P

  • 2016

    viel farbig

    von Balkon und Küche (multi colored, from balcony and kitchen) photography, KUNST IM TAUT HAUS, Berlin-Britz, G

    P

  • 2016

    Blind!Date*,

    photography, installation, Blick von außen (looking from abroad), text Günter Figal, pages 18, 19, 20, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg, G

    C, P, I

  • 2016

    und sehen wie das Gras wächst,

    (and see how the grass grows), ISBN 978-3-86833-184-4 modo publishers Freiburg, G

    C

  • 2015

    Sammeln um zu sehen,

    (collecting to see), Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, photography, pages 142 and 211, Statement Gudrun Selz, pages 5/15, publishers Alexander Bürkle, G

    C, P

  • 2014

    Hausblick, (house view)

    fired clay, unfired clay, video with Natalie Lafortune, Montreal, Canada and Pascale Favre, Geneva, Switzerland Galerie Robert Keller, Kandern, G

    P, I

  • 2014

    Kirschenzeiten (cherry seasons),

    installation with colour prints, ceramic object, HQ of the Regierungspräsidium Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2014

    raumblau (roomblue),

    colour photographs, colour prints on synthetic foil, Galerie G, Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2013

    Janus, Diane, La Vague, Fortuna, Mouche de Hesse,

    colour prints on synthetic foil, L’Été photographique, Lectoure, France

    P, I

  • 2012–2013

    Ivy Shadows, Christmas Night 2010, Cherry Blossom,

    colour prints on synthetic foil, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2012

    Toujours à nouveau – au bord du Fleuve,

    Musée régional, Rimouski, Qc., Canada

    P, I

  • 2012

    Toujours à nouveau – au bord du Fleuve,

    Musée de la mémoire vivante, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Qc., Canada

    P, I

  • 2012

    Wishing-Well,

    Time goes by in the Garden, colour prints on synthetic foil, “Unbestimmtheitsstellen” Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg, G

    P, G

  • 2011

    For a Short Time,

    clay, colour prints, b/w-photos, Galerie Robert Keller,
    Kandern, G

    P, I

  • 2011

    Toujours à nouveau – au bord du Fleuve, Immer wieder aufs Neue – am Strom, Along the banks – a state of flux,

    Montréal – Rimouski, Québec, Canada, ISBN 978-3-86833-087-8, modo-Verlag, G

    C

  • 2010

    Fleurir discrètement sous l’Eau,

    Colour prints laminated on aluminium sheet, La Fête de l’Eau, Wattwiller, Frankreich

    P, I

  • 2010

    Don’t forget Springtime – In the Warmth of Summer,

    Landesgartenschau Baden-Württemberg, Villingen-Schwenningen, G

    P, I

  • 2010

    Time goes by in the Garden,

    Images of a Mexican concrete Floor in my Garden, colour prints on synthetic paper, aludibond, Galerie G, Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2010

    In Return/s – Im Gegenzug,

    with Linda Cassens, Regionale, Kunstverein Freiburg, G

    P, I, G

  • 2009

    Détras de los Jardínes – Hinter den Gärten,

    Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, ISBN 978-3-86833-034-2, modo-Verlag, G

    C

  • 2008

    Causing something visible within my reach,

    Chiemseelandart, Gstadt, G

    I, G

  • 2008–xxxx

    The other Window,

    colour print on synthetic foil, steel frame, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2008

    Détras de los Jardínes,

    Galería Manolo Rivero, Frontground, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico

    P, I

  • 2008

    Chicxulup,

    workshop-leader, Art Academy, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico

    I

  • 2008

    Landscapes on top,

    “Le Roi des Belges”, Schwarzwälder Skimuseum,
    Hinterzarten, G

    O, G

  • 2007

    nArtzissen,

    German Institute, Tartu, Estonia

    P, I

  • 2007

    Landart,

    workshop-leader, State Art Academy, Tartu, Estonia

    I

  • 2007

    Water from 4 Streams,

    “Mythos Feldberg”, Schwarzwälder Skimuseum,
    Hinterzarten, G

    O, G

  • 2007

    Arche de Noé de passage,

    Aldelil, Artenîle, Geneva, Switzerland

    P, I, G

  • 2006

    Mountains – Snow, Meadow with two Mountains,

    ice, artificial snow, colour prints, b/w photos, Schwarzwälder Skimuseum, Hinterzarten, G

    P, I

  • 2006

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württemberg,
    Sulz a.N., G

    P, G

  • 2006–2013

    Narcissus-Meadow,

    colour prints laminated on synthetic board, Urachstrasse, City of Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2006

    Cerezas,

    Centro National del Imagen, Guanajuato, Mexico

    P, I

  • 2006

    Really Flowers,

    colour prints, wood
    boards, artificial flowers, Galerie G, Freiburg, G

    P, O

  • 2005

    Reaching out in Space,

    Kunst und Begegnung, Hermannshof, Völksen near Hannover, G

    C, P, I

  • 2005

    Viewpoints – Insights,

    “zwanzignullfünf”, Chamber of Architects, Henne-Korn, Freiburg, G

    I

  • 2005

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg., Karlsruhe, G

    P, G

  • 2005

    Regionale, Kunstverein Freiburg, G

    P, G

  • 2004

    Agua-Cielo-Tierra,

    Centro Cultural, Casa Vallarta, Gualdalajara, Mexico

    P, I

  • 2004

    El Horizonte perdido,

    workshop-leader, Centro National de las Artes, Instituto Estatal de la Cultura, Guanajuato, Mexico

    I

  • 2003

    Le Ciel sur Terre,

    Musée régional, Rimouski, Qc., Canada, Inter-phases, photo folder, edition of 80

    C, I

  • 2003–xxxx

    The Little Garden,

    fence, paint, concrete, clay, natural seeding, Skulpturenweg, Emmendingen, G

    I

  • 2003

    Jack im Gärtchen,

    with Celia Brown, Galerie im Tor, Emmendingen , G

    O

  • 2003

    Regionale, Kunstverein Freiburg, G

    P, G

  • 2002

    Champs d’Eté,

    Centre d’exposition Circa, Montréal, Ca., Champs d’été, photo folder, edition of 20

    C, P, I

  • 2002

    Heaven and Floor,

    Galerie G, Freiburg, G

    P, I

  • 2002

    Slow Spring,

    Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Canada

    C, P, I

  • 2001–xxxx

    Refugium,

    KUNSTORTNATUR, iron construction, wire mesh, ground, Liliental, Ihringen near Freiburg, G

    I

  • 2001

    Grass Cage, Newspaper, Slow Spring,

    Galerie 4, Cheb, Czech Republic

    P

  • 2001

    Imachine inaginaire,

    with Humberto Chávez, Garden of Zodiac Gallery, Omaha, USA

    P, O

  • 2001

    L’Avant-Mur,

    wood, paint, colour print on synthetic foil, Mois de la Photo, Montréal, Canada, Est-Nord-Est, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Qc., 2003 installed in Rimouski, Qc., Canada

    C, P, I

  • 2001

    Window to Heaven,

    “local time”, Basel, CH

    P, I

  • 2000

    Ceramicists in the Region,

    Augustiner Museum, Freiburg, G

    O, G

  • 2000

    Les Èchapées de la Ruche,

    wood, paint, colour prints, Artist in Residence, Centre Est-Nord-Est Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Qc. Canada

    C, P, I

  • 2000

    Vegetable Soup,

    Künstlerwerkstatt Mehlwaage, Freiburg, G

    I, O, G

  • 2000

    Cherry Bowl,

    concrete, fresh cherries, video, in the atelier O. &. R. Bischoff,
    Lahr, G

    O, G

  • 1999

    In the Flow,

    colour print laminated on metal sheet, Galerie im Tor, Mühlbach, Emmendingen, G

    P, I

  • 1999

    Canary, Slow Spring,

    Booming-Blooming, yellow feathers, colour prints, b/w-photos, Artist in Residence, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Canada

    P, I, O

  • 1998

    March Flowers,

    Majolika, Karlsruhe, G

    O, G

  • 1998

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg.,
    Mannheim, G

    O, G

  • 1997

    April-Berries,

    with Günter Holder, Städtische Galerie, Freiburg, G

    I, O

  • 1997–xxxx

    Wild Cherry Glade,

    Forstinspektion Graubünden, Thusis, Switzerland

    I

  • 1997

    Ivy and News Paper,

    Garden of the Zodiac Gallery, Omaha, USA

    P

  • 1997

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg.,
    Reutlingen, G

    O, G

  • 1996

    Stack-Work,

    80 cbm firewood, white lime wash paint, Markgräfler Museum,
    Müllheim, G

    C, I

  • 1995

    Agua para Flores,

    bucket, water, concrete, Galeria del Sur, UAM-X, Mexico D.F.,
    Mexico

    I

  • 1995

    concrete sculptures, with Bernd Seegebrecht, Galerie Meta Weber,
    Krefeld, G

    O

  • 1995

    Sculpture in a Landscape Garden,

    Herz-Zentrum, Bad Krozingen, G

    I, O

  • 1994

    Corn Cob Show Cases,

    scaffolding, wire mesh, maize stalks, Artist in Residence, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, USA

    I

  • 1994

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg., Karlsruhe, G

    O, G

  • 1992

    Jeu de Paille,

    bales of straw, wood
    poles, ropes, Aiffres, Deux-Sèvres,
    France

    C, I

  • 1992

    Lifelines,

    “Echanges des Regards “, Collège de Cornimont, Voges, France

    I

  • 1992

    ceramic and concrete sculptures, Galerie der Bildenden Künste, Cheb, CZ

    C, O

  • 1992

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg., Stuttgart, G

    O, G

  • 1992

    Clay Wrappers,

    workshop-leader, Technische Universität, Munich, G

    I

  • 1991

    Six Months in Colombi Park,

    unfired clay, red wood poles, Kunstverein,
    Freiburg, G

    C, I

  • 1991

    19 Southern Baden Artists,

    Galerie der Bildenden Künste, Cheb, CZ

    O, G

  • 1990

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg.,
    Esslingen, G

    O, G

  • 1990

    Triennale for small Ceramics, Zagreb, HR

    O, G

  • 1989

    A Shape in Transition

    Georg Scholz Haus, Waldkirch, G

    C, I, O

  • 1989–xxxx

    Blue Mountains,

    metal, paint, ropes, Polizei-FHS, Villingen-Schwenningen,
    G

    I

  • 1988

    Art to the Limits,

    BBK, Breisach, G

    I

  • 1988

    „Rieselfeld II“,

    Symposium Artists and Architects, Freiburg, G

    I

  • 1987

    Two Lines in the Landscape,

    “Rieselfeld I”, with B. Seegebrecht and P.Stobbe,
    Freiburg, G

    I

  • 1987–xxxx

    Landscape Line,

    School for the Handicapped, Freiburg-Wasser, G

    I

  • 1987

    Triennale für kleine Keramik, Zagreb, HR

    O, G

  • 1987

    Künstlerbund Baden-Württbg., Karlsruhe, G

    O, G

  • 1986–xxxx

    Moving Wall,

    Deutsch-Franz. Gymnasium, Freiburg, G

    I

  • 1985

    Cuts in the Clay,

    fired clay,
    Galerie 7,
    Freiburg, G

    O

  • 1982

    Ceramics-Objects,

    BBK-Werkstatt Mehlwaage, Freiburg, G

    O

  • 1980–1995

    Natural Shape – Art Shape,

    Sculptures,
    ceramic and concrete

    O

  • 1978–1983

    Body and Space,

    course tutor Teacher Training College Freiburg, G

    O

  • 1966–1967

    École des Arts Décoratifs, Geneva, CH

    O

  • 1964–1966

    Ceramic courses with
    Anne Mentzel-Marx, G

    O

  • 1944

    born in Bayrischzell, G

    O

ever moss and ivy
An installation involving large format photographic works defines the interior space of the Tithe Barn, a building with a visible history.
Layers of being with a beginning and end, growth and decay, along with human artefacts implanted in a natural environment, while rampant vegetation fulfils its own life cycle.

“Stand heute” – Status Today
From observation to presentation: putting the world in the picture
There they lie. The pictures. In Annette Merkenthaler’s installation “Schichten” (“layers”). Resting flat on an inclined blue ramp, ascending in space. The pictures are depictions of our world. But these are no views through windows aspiring to mediate between inside and outside; these photos render extracts from the real world, details of a macrocosm in close-up. The world in the picture emerges in a garden, her garden. During the course of the year it serves, not only as a place to make observations, but also as a site of creativity and source of images for her art practice.
The artist becomes an observer.
Noticing how leaves fall onto photographic images of foliage, how a fish swishes around a representation of itself in the water, how photographs of dry patches of earth become flooded with rainwater.
A.M. takes note of these fleeting events at the spatial and temporal interface of representation and reality, in order to annul this distinction for an instant using her camera to capture what is going on. Without ever claiming to represent nature, the immediacy of the pictorial observation offers a vivid encounter with space and time.
Dr. Julia Galandi-Pascual, Director of the Paul Ege Art Collection, Translation Celia Brown

Janus
In front of the Town Hall seated in a dip, two peaceful bulls await the visitor behind a few stalks of grass sprouting from a heap of earth. Here is Janus – a photographic diptych dedicated to the two-faced god, opening and closing access to the building. The animal that once gave this dignified portrait at a cattle market was quite unaware that it would be placed facing a ridiculous mound of mud with its meagre grass. The two photographs flanking the entrance now bring the beast back to life. And yet they have changed through time: they have been revamped, manipulated.  This image, having been obscured by earth and penetrated by seeds was re-photographed before being installed at this Oppidum in the Gers.
… Three moments in time coexist in Janus: that of the bull at the cattle market, the growing grass in the artist’s garden, and our own time as visitors. Annette Merkenthaler is not at all committed to a realistic or the most typical way of trying to represent something. Rather, she explores her own means of reconstruction by displacing and transplanting.
… Tensions are evident in the images, aesthetic qualities deriving from the interrelationships within the composition and its incongruity. A temporal process that gives form to the superposition of the pictorial levels and their unexpected modulated reappearance at the surface. It is this friction that points in the present to that which has passed and is still today, indifferent to our indifference.
Michel Métayer, July 2013

Along the banks – a state of flux
(St Laurence River)
How did Annette get into such close contact with the river? – By judiciously overriding the boundaries of the picture and pictorial depth – through her sound appraisal of the material – as a traveller – as can be felt here too – Annette takes photographs of that which passes by, what she passes through – she packages landscape in a rectangular shape to take with her – not in order to own it or fall in love with it – but for the sake of the freedom to roam around  – and have free access to that which connects – to the past – while we are losing track of the present reality – and the reality of the river evades us.
Natalie Lafortune, Montreal, May 2011

Images on the Way – Images Underway
Annette Merkenthaler travels lightly – with photographs, memories, ideas – and takes us along to places that she allows to newly emerge, places that appear strange and yet uncannily familiar to us.
Unexpectedly she gives us the feeling that we have been there before or wish we were there. Silently we move through still rooms and often stand in front of a pale image, next to curtains that are half-drawn but nevertheless let something of the stories behind appear.
We derive a mysterious joy out of discovering and regaining. ‘Behind the Gardens’ is not only a distant, luring place, but also a metaphor for transience. We know that time opposes us and have the desire to hinder its flow
Gudrun Selz, Freiburg, 2009

The Other Window
On the side facing the building a rounded tree can be seen – or to be more precise, a flowering cherry. It is a representation of the same tree over which Annette Merkenthaler has placed the whole structure. On the other side – facing the street – the tree is missing. Not really an empty space, because here we see a blue surface, recognizable by a white cloud as a rendering of the sky above the ground, a green lawn with yellow dandelion flowers… The landscape images that confront us on high are constructions that refuse to conform to the documentary character of photography.
Julia Galandi Pascual, Freiburg, 2008

She promised us a Narcissus Field and planted it in the trees.
Gudrun Selz, Freiburg, 2006

Snow – This time-bound natural material with its whole spectrum of facets is the basis of her photographic documentary and installative investigations – she compares artificial with proper snow and conducts experiments: where does a candle burn longer, in the heap of fake snow or in the real thing? The genuine snow keeps the wax cool and thus lengthens the life of the flame … And the snow develops its typical acoustic muffling properties, whether captured in a photo or in the spatial installation of an artificial snow mound, the Vitrine for Snow and Ice. Or is that all a figment of our imagination?
Eva Schumann-Bacia, Freiburg, “Im Schnee geforscht, der Stille begegnet” BZ 2.01.2007

She responds to readymade and manmade situations with cubic constructions, installing disturbing enclosures made of building materials. Within the boundaries Nature is afforded shelter by the fencing, concrete and wire mesh, so that paradoxically The Garden and The Refuge do not become gardens halting the wilderness but places of resistance, offering Nature limited free spaces.
The destruction and the power of Nature become apparent. For the observant artist withdraws in the course of the creation of the work, forcing the viewer to adopt the role of the sensitive observer.
Margarita Jonietz, Freiburg, 2013

The red of a bus stop and the radiant reflections of the sky in the windows of the passing busses… A yellow gleaming brightly. The multifaceted red of blossoms. A green garden fence, with a photograph of a landscape between the laths. The yellow is that of   the vinyl sheeting that Annette Merkenthaler stretched across a Canadian exhibition space. The yellow of a field of rape she saw. The red is the red of her honeycomb-shaped flowers made of plywood and of Canadian church rooftops. The landscape of St. Laurence River. The interlacing of landscape and art.
Volker Bauermeister, Freiburg, from “So möchte ich es sehen”, BZ June, 2012

A photographic panorama of a forest taken in Canada is relocated by Annette Merkenthaler to the urban space of Baden. The canalized stream is confronted by its opposite in a natural space.
We look at this photo that is half submerged under water. And it becomes for us literally: Photo in the Flow (Foto im Fluss) The sun comes up in the morning before eleven o’clock at this time of year to touch the picture surface – and deletes the fine silvery line that delineates the water’s edge, so long as there is shadow. Then the reflection of the part of the picture above water blends with the part swimming underneath, a glittering silvery-lit rendering of the Canadian forest, while leaves  float by, accompanied by apples with skins of different colours. The journey from bridge to bridge takes about ten seconds. The photographic mural, about six metres in width, almost fills the gap. A picture displaying an image of the flowing, transient world. The artist has already collected many “findings” for it. Now she is standing there again with her camera. As long as the work is in place, her work is not finished. As long as the stream flows and the sun moves.
Volker Bauermeister, Emmendingen, 27.06.1999

Stackwork
III This installation is in a wood but not far from human habitation, a wood in which people go for walks. The artist’s conflicting attitude to the enclosed and the boundless, already mentioned, applies here too, along with her deep enthusiasm for the latter.
… Her path is the space-time-experience, the painstaking concern with both of a person, of a woman. By stacking, a person can measure up to the world. Through this action human powers are tested, measured, exhausted. Boundaries are felt. How high can I still stack? How long can I keep it up? – And in view of the unexpected, devoid of human influence: is the stack still straight? Can it withstand the wind and storm? Will it remain stable? As soon as the work leaves the artist’s hands it is born into freedom: creation means nothing less than exposing the work to the unpredictability of the world.
Michel Métayer, Strasbourg, 1992

Annette Merkenthaler’s clay and earth works, whether related directly to landscape as on- site installations or indoor sculptures, always gain their tension from a coincidence of organoid and constructive vocabulary. A particularly good example of her outdoor works is the installation she made in 1991 in the Colombipark in Freiburg: using 20 tonnes of roof-tile clay she erected a high earth wall of one to two-and-a-half metres with red-painted wooden posts invisible inside. This was left for six months to be battered by natural processes of decay, along with a hillock cut sharply on two sides to make a segment of landscape. At the end of the experiment the original form of the natural mound could just be made out whereas the tectonic design had been reduced to the skeleton of wooden posts. And thus a work was created in which completion implied the simultaneous potential of ultimate destruction in a most poignant manner, a fit comment on the natural principle of a circle of becoming and passing away.
Stephan Berg, Freiburg, 1992

Cuts in Clay
Annette Merkenthaler has moved further and further away from ceramic as a material for everyday usage to create independent, sculptural shapes with their own aesthetic quality. The material is freed from any function in order to be available for artistic expression. The series shown here was made by bending, compressing and buckling bits of landscape. The clay itself is a piece of Nature. Earth. … An aesthetic and sensuous experience that only Nature can formulate otherwise. This makes the carefully calculated cuts seem even more brutal, traces of human intervention. The material responds to the wounds, cracks appearing that make up the composition.
Gabriella Göröcs, Freiburg, 1985

AMs vision is like her work: multiply ‘in-between’: between above and below, between high and low, open and closed, between unspectacular and exceptionally pregnant with meaning, between natural and artificial, between illusion and reality.
Gudrun Selz, Freiburg, 2006