With the exhibition Stadt Land Fluss, Galerie Albrecht continues its exploration of the terms 'abstract' and 'figurative'. The paintings by Zoran Minić, the photographs by Maria Mölko, and the drawings by David Connearn are both. Unlike the previous exhibition on landscape, Landschaft, Stadt Land Fluss does not present unconnected individual positions; rather, a contrast is built up that is resolved in the connection. What connects city and countryside is the river. It flows both in the city as well as the countryside, many human settlements are located by a river. The river is their heart. The contrast between city and countryside on the one hand and river on the other hand lies not just in the different environments and ways of life, but seen abstractly, it is a contrast between the static and the flowing. In the exhibition, it lies between photography and painting, which are connected by the drawings. The artist and writer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) calls drawings the origin of the fine arts. In his time— photography did not exist yet—everything was created by hand. In photography, however, the focus is no longer on the hand, but on the eye. The hand is only a means to an end.

This might also be said of Zoran Minić's paintings. They are painted by hand, but more important is the preliminary drawing, to which paint is then applied, but also left out in some areas—where the drawing remains visible. For these works, the hand is essential—or could a computer also replace it?

David Connearn tried it out and had his drawings, which he carefully draws line after line on a sheet of paper with his Rotring ink pen, redrawn by a specially designed computer program. The computer did not create anything equal—but perhaps that is just a question of time.

The drawing can be described as the first human articulation made with a tool—the brush and the camera are also tools. So perhaps the drawing is the original source after all that connects everything, and the City Artefacts that Maria Mölko creates with the camera can also be seen as just that: as drawings created with the eye.

David Connearn (1952, lives in London) took a degree in History at Queens' College Cambridge before attending the Slade School (1979-81) in the Sculpture and Experi- mental Departments, where he established the drawing process which has been central to his work since that date. From 1980-95 he was a sculptural assistant to Sol LeWitt. His work in drawing has been exhibited internationally since the 1980s and is represen- ted in the collections of The British Council, The British Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Arts Council Collection, together with a number of prominent public and private collections in Europe, Japan and the USA.

Zoran Minić (1964, lives and works between Milan and Lake Como) is an architect,a designer and a painter. He holds a Master's Degree in design at Domus Academy, Milan. After years working as a partner with Aldo Cibic, he founded POP Solid with Dragana Minić, a multi-disciplinary and experimental practice where they develop design narratives and architectural projects. Zoran is among the founders of Recession Design, a research group looking for new Design Do it Yourself solutions. Two books were published of their work by Rizzoli. Iconography of a landscape is part of an investigation on Lake Como and Maremma.

Maria Mölko started out as a painter and in 2007 acquired a bachelors in graphic design at the University of the West of England. There she taught herself photography and later moved to London to work in the fashion industry. Her work has been published in fashion publications, including Vogue and Tank magazine amongst others. In 2021 she completed her studies in photography at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie. Her current work investigates in its broader sense the human condition in the post-modern era.

Press release courtesy Galerie Albrecht.