made in Jingdezhen is on view at Axel Obiger, Berlin
April 26 – May 24, 2025
Featuring: Felicithas Arndt, Hetang Kongyi, Gabriele Künne, Sunbin Lim, Zhao Lin, Joke Noordstrand, Song Zhifeng
Curated by Gabriele Künne
The concept for this exhibition emerged in Jingdezhen in 2024 when, during her residency at Jingdezhen Ceramic University (JCU), Gabriele Künne encountered the work of numerous international artists, each exploring ceramics and porcelain in their own unique way.
Jingdezhen was originally known as Changnanzhen (昌南鎮), after its location on the Chang river. However, during the Song dynasty (960 AD onwards), it was renamed to complement the era name of the Jingde emperor, who sourced porcelain for his court from Jingdezhen and thus boosted production in the region. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Jingdezhen was also officially designated as an “imperial production site” for porcelain, with kilns under imperial management and control being operated alongside the private kilns.
Porcelain production in Jingdezhen thrived due to its rich kaolin deposits, vast forests supplying wood for the kilns, and a riverside location that facilitated the safe transport of ceramics, including exports to destinations as distant as Europe. It was not until 1708 that porcelain was successfully produced in Germany (Meissen).
Nowadays, Jingdezhen is a hub for international artists working not only with ceramics and porcelain but also with a variety of other materials and media. They are drawn to the city’s rich infrastructure of specialized craftspeople and workshops.
During her residency, Gabriele Künne selected the artists whose work is now being exhibited at Axel Obiger. They each have very different connections to Germany and China. For example, Song Zhifeng studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the IKKG Höhr-Grenzhausen, and Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, specializing in ceramics. He now serves as the director of the Ceramics department at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China.
With a Chinese mother and German father, Felicithas Arndt is accustomed to commuting between two cultures. She studied at the HfG Offenbach and is now head of its ceramics workshop (Ceramic Art Lab). She is interested in the tension between natural and man-made forms and structures.
Sunbin Lim comes from Cheolwon in South Korea but came to Germany to study at the IKKG Höhr-Grenzhausen. He lives in Wiesbaden and was also an artist in residence at JCU in 2024. Lim works with partially roughly textured and seemingly unfinished structures and forms to explore the themes of tension and division in the world, with a particular focus on the tensions between North and South Korea.
Zhao Lin is a ceramic artist based in Jingdezhen who also completed a residency at JCU during this time. He opened his private studio to the international artists in residence and thus fostered a dialogue between the Chinese and international artists. His work focuses on the interplay between humans and nature, often depicting childlike human characters alongside self-confident animal figures.
Joke Noordstrand is a historian based in Amsterdam and has been making artwork with ceramics and porcelain since 2021. She was also an artist in residence at JCU in 2024. Her work experiments with unusual materials such as paper handkerchiefs, pasta, and string; these are soaked in porcelain and co-fired, lending an unusual, humorous indeterminacy to the work.
Hetang Kongyi is the only artist not showing ceramics in this exhibition; instead, he is exhibiting ink drawings that strike a balance between tradition and modernity. In addition to being a senior monk at Tongjue Temple in Suzhou, he also writes poetry and is the editor of numerous publications; Kongyi situates his work within this spiritual context.
Gabriele Künne employs abstract forms and systems of objects to question our perceptions. Architectural constructions and volumes that exist in the border zone between surface and form play an important role. She draws on a repertoire of urban and natural structures; these are abstracted and combined to enable a nuanced range of associations but can never be definitively identified.
The traditions of European and Chinese art serve as the backdrop to this exhibition, with the contemporary artworks referencing, transforming, and deconstructing elements from them. The exhibition continues the dialogue that began in Jingdezhen in 2024 and brings it to a Berlin audience.
Contact
info@axelobiger.com
Axel Obiger
Brunnenstrasse 29, Mitte
10119 Berlin
Germany
Installation views by Eric Tschernow. Images of individual works by Gabriele Künne.
