1 April – 30 July 2006
COBURGER GLASPREIS 2006
für zeitgenössische Glaskunst in Europa
“Ellen Urselmann winns The
European young artist price”.
Almost 1200 works by 486 artists
from 27 European countries have
taken part in this competition. A
selection has been made by an
international jury of 236 works by
173 artists from 24 countries which
will take part in this exhibition. From
this group, 7 winners have been chosen.
The Barbara Koppelstätter-Preis für
junge kunstler, one out of seven prizes,
has been won by Ellen Urselmann.
Kunstsammlungen Der Veste Coburg
96450 Coburg
Duitsland
Ellen Urselmann’s work is a part of Der
Veste Coburg’s permanent collection.
Article at the catalogue:
Ellen Urselmann, from the generation of the under-30s, whose two works attracted my attention right from the first moment of our work as a jury. At a purely formal level, the balance between the parts made of blown glass and the exogenous elements, which are well-chosen and integrated, is original and powerful; parallel to this, the effect of the materials and colours- one opalescent with an interaction between blue and white [glass and ceramics] and the other transparent featuring the interplay of black with white and reflective materials [glass, plastic, metal and a photographic negative on glass and mirror]-proves that she masters her craft and reveals genuine elegance.
These formal qualities do not exclude associations with ideas that are more sentimental and even pathetic but pathetic in a way that knows the meaning of a smile and self-irony. This elegant humour also transforms – yet never denies – the effect of kitsch and bad taste suggested by the Delft figure” or by the sink outlet, the route that our dirty water takes as it goes to the underground sewers.
Fragile like bubbles of blown glass, the tension of an imaginary kiss between ”big children” evokes an instable equilibrium and the edge of an abyss!
A cliché of childhood, reflected in a mirror and like an impression dug deep into the convolutions of a brain or the heart; a whole universe of memories and sensations that can disappear in an instant like a soap bubble in the bottom of the sink or through a gap in the memory.
It is the force of suggestion of these works that attracted me – between the games of adults and the memories of childhood, between the serious and the trivial, the funny and pathetic.
Jean-Luc Olivié, member of the jury.
ISBN 3-87472-086-1
