Ines Spanier & Oliver Thie: Streifzüge

 

The exhibition brings together works by Ines Spanier and Oliver Thie under the title “Streifzüge”, which for both artists serves as a metaphor for both their approach to the world and the artistic process itself. Ines Spanier focuses on the graphic exploration of traces of everyday human life and their translation into an imaginary, archaeological depth, whilst Oliver Thie examines the diversity and individuality of natural phenomena through the medium of hand drawing.

 

By photographing surfaces and structures during her wanderings through urban spaces and in her everyday surroundings, Ines Spanier has built up a constantly growing archive of images to serve as a repertoire of motifs. Oliver Thies’s works tend to emerge during planned wanderings through landscapes and on expeditions, but also from a sense of being on the move in search of something.

  

From her archive of motifs, Ines Spanier selects thematically related photographs, which she then explores further through the process of drawing. The artist transfers photographic fragments onto paper using coloured pencils and graphite, combining and condensing them, allowing them to grow organically. As if on a ramble, this gives rise to unexpected encounters between forms, structures and lines. The metaphor of the ramble also highlights the temporal dimension of the work: the drawing unfolds continuously. Every line, condensation and combination is part of a morphogenetic process in which new pictorial spaces emerge. Finally, the exhibition title also reflects the central theme of Ines Spanier’s work: making human traces visible and preserving them. The drawing becomes a means of preserving and continuing these traces, of translating a fleeting moment into a lasting pictorial form: in the translation from photograph to paper. Depending on the format and size, months or even years may pass before the artist considers the drawing complete.

  

In Oliver Thie’s work, the title ‘Streifzüge’ also refers to the act of drawing: the movement of the tool across the surface, the wandering through the pictorial space, the productive digression. He sees drawing as a means of immersing oneself in other ways of living and perceiving. To get closer to the organisms and structures he studies, he immerses himself in their respective environments and works with optical aids. He draws in the forest, underwater, at the microscope, develops his own tools and expands upon classical techniques. The exhibition guides visitors through mineral, plant and animal phenomena. With the series Die Wahrheit über den Ursprung der Welt (The Truth About the Origin of the World), Thie examines the characteristics of rocks based on their silhouettes. With Umrindungen, he explores the microcosm of trees through drawn measurements that reveal the rich detail of their surfaces. In the long-term project Snail Movement Observation Program (SMOP), the artist investigates the movement patterns of tropical freshwater snails in collaboration with biologists.

Opening: 18 April 2026, 2 pm 

Duration: 18 April – 12 July 2026

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm

Admission: €8.00 standard; €5.00 reduced; free for children under 12 and members of the Caspar David Friedrich Society.

 

Further information about your visit can be found here.

12 June 2026 – 6 pm