For the exhibition Arial Areas Julia Oschatz has created a series of new works; both  drawings, video and paintings. The starting point for the works is different sections of aerial regions, as suggested in the title, but also the material coal strikes a theme in the drawings and the videoinstallation “Aerial Areas”. These two anchors bring together the works in a dynamic, but still unified expression.

The paintings relate to the title Aerial Areas by composing canvases in various sizes, creating elements that exist both as isolated areas and as a composite whole. With allusion to the fact that "aerial" also can mean antenna, Oschatz lets a small mast sticking out from one of the works, and connects the painting to the possibility to be able to both detect and intercept signals. Like an antenna the painting can transmit the seen and process it so that others can look at it.

Other paintings in the exhibition can also be seen as aerial areas as they look like maps or areas seen from above. In connection with the spatial relationship in these paintings Oschatz unfolds her fairy tale-like universes that both can be worlds seen from above or abstractions with hints of figuration. Mountains and the far horizon reveal itself in dark colors and reminiscent places near the end of the world.

The large drawings in the exhibition and the video are inextricably linked through characters, who are pictured in the black/white drawings and who also act in the video. One of the figures´ head is replaced with a structure that looks like a coal shovel or a piece of a roof. Oschatz has previously worked with similar abstract characters as the center of works in various media. The characters in the video works are played by Oschatz herself, but they still remain without identity as they are presented without face, gender or age. The entire exhibition will be composed as a complete installation in the gallery space.

Julia Oschatz (b. 1970) lives and works in Berlin. She has had solo exhibitions at Leslie Tokonow in New York, Kunstverein Ulm, Galerie Anita Beckers in Frankfurt and in The Palagkas Temporary in London. The exhibition is Oschatz first at Galerie Mikael Andersen in Copenhagen.

Photo credits: Jan Søndergaard