Cologne: A Crooked World

An art exhibition featuring works by seven artists from all over the world. They contribute to the expansion of abstract painting while maintaining a connection to landscapes through approximations, colors, mental topographies, and tech revolutions. Now to see at Gallery Drei, Cologne.

A Crooked World compiles works by Whitney Claflin, Matthias Groebel, David Ostrowski, Coumba Samba, Julia Scher, Josef Strau, and Anna Virnich, all of whom contributed and continue to contribute in different ways to the expansion of the landscape of abstract painting.

Installation view: A Crooked World, Drei, Cologne, 2023 – Photo: © Cédric Mussano, Courtesy the artists and Drei, Cologne

While themselves remaining abstract, the works on view show their connection to landscape (an ever rich source for abstraction and summer exhibitions alike) along the keyboard of “approximations“, colors, mental topographies, formal concepts, scenes, and tech revolutions. In the close connection of the participating artists with the cities of New York and Cologne, the exhibition takes up one of the most important axes in recent art history.

Anna Virnich, Untitled #15, 2014
Silk, yarn on wooden stretch frame; 180 × 119 cm
Photo: © Cédric Mussano, Courtesy the artist and Drei,
Cologne

The title refers to a recent painting by Whitney Claflin, inspired by the Silver Jews album cover for American Water– a quintessential depiction of an American freeway. Claflin’s painting transformed this scene into a depiction of a sun/moon/orb with its reflection on the ground off center… “Because the world is crooked“ (Whitney Claflin, 2022).

Whitney Claflin, Monuments Blinking, 2023
Oil on canvas with enamel on found earring; Canvas: 38 x 46 cm
Photo: © Cédric Mussano, Courtesy the artist and Drei, Cologne

Participating artists:
Whitney Claflin, Matthias Groebel, David Ostrowski, Coumba Samba, Julia Scher, Josef Strau, Anna Virnich
at Drei, Cologne until July 29, 2023