Zunder und Zartheit Mitgliederausstellung

In the organizer's words:

DG Members' Exhibition
Tinder and tenderness
July 4 to September 18, 2025

The exhibition 'Zunder und Zartheit' presents works by selected members of the Kunstverein from different generations. At a time when feminist debates and demands for equality are part of everyday life, it almost sounds a little provocative to focus solely on men in an exhibition. But that's exactly what we're doing - and for good reason.

In the art world, men often have the prestige, the bigger price tag and the big name. But what about the softer tones, the doubts, the vulnerable moments? While the last members' exhibition 'Notre Dame' was dedicated exclusively to female artists, we are now turning the tables and looking at the male artists in our association. What moves them? How do they reflect on themselves in an art world in which many things are changing? And what can art tell us about being a man that goes beyond old role models?

In his 1984 song 'Männer' (Men), Herbert Grönemeyer explains various characteristics of men and clichés about them, sometimes satirically, and proclaims that 'men are people too'. For years, old clichés about 'men' have been reproduced and new ones generated, particularly in the context of debates about gender equality. The works on display do not fit into simple categories - they are poetic, questioning, sometimes rough, sometimes gentle. And perhaps they open up a space for a conversation that we have not yet had in this way.

The association was founded in 1893 by artists under the chairmanship of Georg Busch and Gebhard Fugel as a supra-regional, non-profit and independent cultural institution. The great involvement of various female artists in the association today has only developed since the 1990s.

Artists
Friedrich Koller (born in Salzburg in 1939) lives and works in Laufen, Upper Bavaria. He was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1956. He studied under Prof. Josef Henselmann. Koller's works often develop from basic forms such as cubes and cylinders, and his figures are often reduced to simple basic forms. Overall, Friedrich Koller's sculptural work is characterized by simplicity, reduction and abstraction. In his artistic work, Koller implemented the resolutions of the Second Vatican Council at the beginning of the 1960s, which introduced a new liturgy and expressed this in particular with the creation of 'people's altars'.

Manfred Mayerle (born in Munich in 1939) lives and works in Munich and in Jachenau, Upper Bavaria. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1959 to 1964 under Josef Oberberger, Hermann Kaspar and Anton Marxmüller. He became a master student in 1963 and passed his state examination in 1964. In 1962 he received a scholarship from the Jubilee Foundation of the City of Munich. He has worked as a freelance artist since 1970. His work includes drawing, painting, sculpture and works interpreting architecture. In 2014, Mayerle was appointed to the Bavarian State Architecture Committee for the field of art. He is a member of the Deutscher Werkbund, the Berufsverband Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler (BBK), the board of trustees of the Bayerische Einigung and the general board of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst. In 2020, Mayerle founded the non-profit 'Stiftung Atelier Manfred Mayerle' together with his wife Elka Jordanow.

Günter Nosch (*1956 in Marktoberdorf) lives and works in Weilheim, Upper Bavaria. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1987. His "playful relationship to language" (Nosch) goes back to his beginnings as an artist, when he explored concrete poetry before turning to gestural painting. In a contemplative, almost calligraphic process, he used paint and squeegee to create non-representational compositions that simultaneously examined the color and its structure as traces of this process. For some years now, he has focused on the material world and its connection with language. Nosch works on poetic systems as an artistic interrogation of writing, signs, things and meaning.

Peter Paul Rast (*1952 born in Munich) lives and works in Munich, Upper Bavaria. From 1973 to 1975 he studied art history and philosophy at the LMU Munich. From 1975 to 1981 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Prof. Dr. Thomas Zacharias. In 1981 he graduated with the 1st state examination, followed by the 2nd state examination and teaching at a grammar school in 1984. "Beauty has something to do with being touched, it requires a counterpart," says Peter Paul Rast. In his painterly series 'Rose Cuts', he was inspired by a salmon-pink blooming rose as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Camill von Egloffstein (*1988 born in Munich) lives and works in Munich, Upper Bavaria. He studied art history and art education at LMU Munich from 2010 to 2013. From 2013 to 2020 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, first with Prof. Franz Wanner, then Prof. Jorinde Voigt and moved to Prof. Olaf Metzel in 2017. There he became a master student in 2020. His site-specific works explore the tension between spatial structure and materiality. In addition to participating in exhibitions in Munich, he has also exhibited internationally in Budapest, Vienna and Tel Aviv.

Bruno Wank (*1961 in Marktoberdorf) grew up in Marktoberdorf and came into contact with the profession through his father Martin Wank's bronze casting workshop. He began by studying sports at the Technical University of Munich from 1983 to 1986 and then studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich as a master student of Olaf Metzel until 1992. In 1993 he became head of the study workshop for bronze casting, and from 2007 to 2009 he was Vice President of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. He has been working as a freelance artist since 1993. The exhibition features works from the honeycomb flower cycle.

opening
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 6 to 9 pm
7 p.m.
Welcome and introduction
Dr. Ulrich Schäfert, 1st Chairman
Benita Meißner, Curator

Open Art Gallery Weekend
Opening hours
Friday, July 4, 2025, 12 to 6 p.m.
Saturday, 5 July 2025, 11 am to 6 pm (program with surprise guests)
Sunday, July 6, 2025, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sunday, July 6, 2025, 12 noon
'Outline'
Musical performance by students of concert design (class: Hanni Liang, Munich University of Music and Performing Arts) with Mira Foron, Sophia Nussbichler, Hanyu Xiao, Jana Förster, Emma Longo Valente

Finissage with music
Thursday, September 18, 2025, 7 pm