“Poisonous Kiss. Lovely Venom.” / Lenz Geerk, Vivian Greven, Mevlana Lipp
Curated by Vincent Vanden Bogaard
18 December – 31 January, 2021
TICK TACK
Mechelsesteenweg 247
2018 Antwerp, Belgium
Images courtesy of the artists and Tick Tack, Antwerp
time in Belgium, the works of three Düsseldorf based artists:
MEVLANA LIPP
Mevlana Lipp (1989, DE) lives in Leverkusen and works in Düsseldorf. His work has been exhibited
internationally across the US, UK, Germany, Italy, France and Denmark. Solo exhibitions include Eden,
KuK Gallery, Cologne (2019); Basic Instinct, Ak-Raum, Cologne (2019), Paradise Lost, Annarumma
Gallery, Naples (2017), Fluidum at The Other Space by Andersens Contemporary, Copenhagen
(2020) and Calypso, Public Gallery, London (2020). Selected group exhibitions include Ruttkowski;68,
Cologne; Collection Kunsthaus Kollitsch, Klagenfurt; Saatchi Gallery, London and 03, PM/AM Gallery,
London.
original metaphor for being, that unimaginable paradise from which humans were banished but seem
always to seek to return to, perhaps like the Romantics who sought the sublime in nature.
communicate and share resources through a complex mycorrhizal network of interconnected roots
and fungi. In the deepest reaches of the ocean,clusters of tiny organisms flourish around thermal jets
and metre-high corals grow that are thousands of years old.
gentle swaying feathers of a crinoid become signifiers of complex sets of emotions and experiences,
communicated in a language outside of human linguistic codes. Part semiotic metaphor part primordial
creatures from the deep, the organic organisms in Mevlana’s artwork reach out across time and
consciousness to whisper about where all things began.“
VIVIAN GREVEN
representation, with concepts of classical antiquity merging with pop art and digital image worlds.
Vivian Greven’s painting is characteristic of our present times, which are shaped by the internet and
social media and thus dissolve the hierarchies between original, reproduction and simulation. The
surfaces. Parts of her painting rise as actual reliefs that encounter sprayed or painted fictions of bodies
and space. The aesthetic of her pictures vacillates between the vocabulary of physical painting and the
ethereal illusion of LCD windows.
Vivian Greven (1985, DE) is already represented in internationally renowned museum collections
such as the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, and since September 2019 she is participating in the show “Jetzt!
Junge Malerei in Deutschland” at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Kunstsammlung Chemnitz – Museum
Gunzenhauer, the Museum Wiesbaden, Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Her works have also been on view
in international exhibitions, including recently at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Sammlung Philara
Düsseldorf, the Braunsfelder Family Collection Cologne and the Salzburger Kunstverein. Ucpoming
group exhibitions amgong others will be at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, DE and Gallery Vacancy,
Shanghai, CN. A solo show is currently shown at Kunstpalais Erlangen and another one will be
presented in 2021 at Kunstmuseum Langmatt, CH.
Courtesy Kadell Willborn, Dusseldorf
LENZ GEERK
paintings that are removed from any specific time or place. Emphasizing his subjects in such a
monochromatic palettes, only occasionally warmed by other colors, adds to the aura of emotional
tension.
Recent solo exhibitions include Galeria Acappella, Naples; Galerie Valentin, Paris; Galeria Mascota,
Mexico City; Gerhard Hofland Gallery, Amsterdam; The Cabin, Los Angeles, Robert Projects, California,
among others.
Courtesy Roberts Projects, California
ULRIKE OTTINGER
Ulrike Ottinger (1942) is a German Filmmaker and photographer. Her works have received numerous
awards, including the German Federal Film Prize and the German Film Critics’ Prize. Her oeuvre has
been honored at the most important international festivals, retrospectives and exhibitions, including
the Cinémathèque française and Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York
and numerous international film festivals. In 2010 Ulrike Ottinger was honored with the Order of Merit of
the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2011 she received the Hannah Höch Prize of the city Berlin for her
artistic life’s work.
Ulrike Ottinger is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin and Munich and since 2019 a member
of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Academy Awards (Oscars)
annually.
For CINEMA TICK TACK, her work Superbia (1986) will be screened daily after sunset for the duration
of the exhibition.
maid.”
Poisonous Kiss. Lovely Venom.
Note of intend
visit the exhibition “Poisonous Kiss. Lovely Venom” at Tick Tack.
or a combination of different factors such as research or deep readings. But in the case of
two layers reading. The first one is more related to my personal experience, more related to
of life events: encounters, friendship and shared opportunities.
liaisons. It came for me as a challenge to unify the work of the three artists through pictures
and evocations making solid resonances with our inner sentiments, with our personal
interpretation of love.
Geerk, Vivian Greven and Mevlana Lipp about their own impressions and the way they were
developing their practice over the time. It was important for me to respect the integrity of the
artists and their work while, as a fan of literature and cinema, building up a coherent story.
“Poisonous Kiss. Lovely Venom.”
Vincent Vanden Bogaard
Poisonous Kiss. Lovely Venom.
Poem by Vincent Vanden Bogaard
The little dance
illuminates me.
and the wild weeds
Lifeblood and sweat streams.
this elation going
The claws of your passion.
Your loving teeth marks.
The venom of your kisses,
slowly taking effect.
and the time disappears.
Vincent Vanden Bogaard