Located in the heart of Karlsruhe, Germany. A vibrant cultural city in the border triangle of Germany, Switzerland, and France. DCS CONTEMPORARY produces exhibitions, publications, discursive, and learning experiences to forge an interpretive understanding of local and global phenomena in art and society.

The gallery works with talented local and global artists of renowned stature and offers spaces to young artists it considers promising. We support our artists in dynamic exhibitions and projects and pay special attention to our audiences and clients’ intellectual and aesthetic interests. Creating bridges between artists and art passionate.

With over 20 years of experience in the arts, Founder and Director Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt embrace diasporic voices, utilizing the space as a platform for exhibitions, museum visitations, public lectures, performing arts, new media. As well as a meeting point for artists, curators, scholars, and writers.

Contemporary Art Gallery

Karlstrasse 43, 76133 Karlsruhe
E: gallery@dcscontemporary.com www.dcscontemporary.com

Past exhibitions

29.06.2024

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

ALEJANDRO DíAZ GROVA

Fußballkunst

 

Eröffnung
Samstag, 29.06.2024,
19Uhr

 

 

Begrüßung: TOM HOYEM

Kurator: DR.DANA CORINA SCHMIDT

_________

 

Musikalische Begleitung:

PETER LEHEL (Saxophon)
DANIEL PRANDL (Piano)

_________

 

 

gallery@dcscontemporary.com

www.dcscontemporary.com

6.04.2024 – 3.05.2024

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„Quo Vadis, Homini?“

 

Leon Ariev

Malerei

Woytek

Skulpturen

 

Kuratorin: Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt

Einführung: Dr. Dr. Brigitte E.S. Jansen

Musikalische Begleitung: Nargiza Alimova (Piano)

 

Öffnungszeiten: Mittwoch und Freitag,13-17 Uhr und nach Vereinbarung

M: +49 (0)160 201 00 19

 

Eintritt frei

gallery@dcscontemporary.com
www.dcscontemporary.com

24.02.2024 – 21.03.2024

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„Impressionen“

 

ALINA COCIERE

Malerei

SIEGFRIED BRZOSKA

Skulpturen

 

Begrüßung: Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt

Musikalische Begleitung: Mischa Kibardin (Violin), Nargiza Alimova (Piano)

 

Eröffnung, am Samstag, 24.02.2024
um 18.00 Uhr

 

Eintritt frei

gallery@dcscontemporary.com
www.dcscontemporary.com

 

 

03.02.2024

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„We are all strangers somewhere“

 

IRINA BALIURA

PAULO GOMES LEAL

 

Begrüßung: Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt

Musikalische Begleitung: Zhuravytsky Vadim (Piano), Igor Panchenko (Piano)

 

gallery@dcscontemporary.com
www.dcscontemporary.com

Eröffnung, am Samstag, 03.02.2024
um 17.00 Uhr

Titel-Bilder: Irina Baliura, “Der Gleichtakt der reizend klingelnden Musik”, 34 x 49 cm, Kugelschreiber, Marker, 2022

Paulo Gomes Leal, “Eternity”, 70 x 50 cm, Wooden base, covered in Nappa Leather, Brass, Clock Mechanisms, cut Swarovski Crystals , 2023

09.12.2023 – 08.01.2024

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„Revelations“

CARLOS SABLON

Begrüßung: Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt

Kurator: Prof. Alberto Irons

Musikalischer Begleitung:
Marko Cirkovic (Piano)

Eröffnung / Samstag 09.12.2023
um 17 Uhr
19.11.2023 – 8.12.2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„ Commodification of the Idyllic “

NABANITA SAHA

 

Begrüßung: Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt
Laudatio: Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt

 

gallery@dcscontemporary.com
www.dcscontemporary.com

Eröffnung, am Sonntag, 19.11.2023
um 16 Uhr
03.10.2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„Hommage an Claude Monet“

FREDY VILLAMIL

Eröffnung, am Dienstag, 03.10.2023 um 18 Uhr
mit Kubanische Rhythmen
16.09.2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

 

16.09.2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

„Die fabelhafte Welt der Anca Sonia“

ANCA SONIA

Samstag, 16.09.2023, um 18 Uhr
5.08.2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

KÜNSTLER VON VENEZUELA

LUIS ALBERTO HERNANDEZ

Samstag, 5.08.2023, 17-23 Uhr

Luis Alberto Hernández (Venezuela, 1950) lebt und arbeitet zwischen Deutschland, Frankreich und Venezuela. 1971 begann er sein Kunststudium am Centro Francisco Pimentel in Caracas; anschließend setzte er es an der Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristóbal Rojas, Caracas, und am Centro de Enseñanza Gráfica (CEGRA) in Caracas, Venezuela, fort. Um sein praktisches Studium theoretisch zu ergänzen, besuchte er die Kunsthochschule der Universidad Central de Venezuela. Außerdem belegte er einen Kurs in Theologie für Ordensleute an der Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas.

„Luis Alberto Hernandez hat sein Leben dem Geheimnis des Heiligen gewidmet, das im Magischen und Religiösen enthalten ist und den Menschen in den verschiedenen Epochen, Zivilisationen und Kulturen der Welt beschäftigt und begleitet hat. Die Idee des Heiligen ist die Inspirationsquelle für sein visuelles Werk. Sie ist seit Jahren ein konstantes, obsessives Thema, so dass man meinen könnte, Hernández habe in seinem gesamten Schaffen an einem einzigen Werk gearbeitet, das er in seinen vielfältigen formalen und symbolischen Möglichkeiten komponiert, zerlegt und neu zusammensetzt.

Sein visueller Diskurs besteht aus Farbflecken und -strichen – Schwarz, Rot, Weiß, Blau, Ocker -, Blattgold, antiken Schriften, Kalligraphie, religiösen Zeichen und Symbolen der östlichen und westlichen Welt, wie dem Davidstern, Kreuzen, Mandalas, Dreiecken, Kreisen und Quadraten, Elementen, denen der Künstler einen hohen Gehalt an Plastizität verleiht, der eine große visuelle Wirkung auf den Betrachter erzeugt und so den hohen symbolischen Gehalt des Werks verdeutlicht, das für viele am Ende unentzifferbar, abstrakt, ist. In ihm verschmelzen Kunst, Symbolik, Religion und Linguistik.

Stilistisch lässt sich die Malerei dieses Künstlers dem Informalismus zuordnen, insbesondere jener Strömung, die die Gestik, die Verwendung von Zeichen, Ideogrammen und Kalligraphie praktiziert. Kurzum, das Werk von Hernández ist auf der Grundlage einer sehr persönlichen Philosophie konzipiert.

José Gregorio Noroño

 

June 16, 2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

Cyber Island

Curator: Horea Avram

An island is a real place and, at the same time, an ideal site. Island is a widespread motif in almost every culture, most often described as a special, out-of-this-world land. For how else such a place can be as long as it is surrounded by waters, since it is born of waters, confronting the waters. The references to the theme of the island are multiple: from the Greek Mythology’s Isles of the Blessed (or The Fortunate Isles), to the Arthurian legend of Avalon, from Hinduism’s idea of island as a symbol of (inner) peace, to the island as a heterotopia of deviance, as Foucault has put it, this time in the digital sphere.

All these layers of meanings are somehow present in Adrian Grecu’s islands, even if these cultural references do not appear explicitly. They don’t even have to! What emanates from Grecu’s images instead is the spiritual and symbolic dimension of the island as a kind of isolated reality, a magical world that is not necessarily true and, at the same time, a space for the manifestation of one’s own identity, of self-searching, the terrain of free expression of the imagination.

Adrian Grecu’s artistic imagination dwells in the digital space. And this for almost 30 years, since he is a veteran of digital art, at least in his part of the world. The motif of the island appeared in the ’90s when he produced the first CGI images. The island was then rather the sign of a critical attitude towards an alienating (post)totalitarian society, a representation of the isolation felt in relationship with a distant Europe then still defined on the ruins of the Iron Curtain. This first interpretation of the island – with the skeleton suggesting life and death, a sort of updated Vanitas – set an important precedent for his work, and not only at the discursive level. Adrian Grecu remained firmly committed to the digital, to 3D modeling, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality interactions and applications.

The exhibition “Cyber ​​Island”, constitutes an overview and a sort of fulfillment of this long-time preoccupations, both in terms of the symbolic and/or political references, and in terms of the visual approach and CGI techniques employed. This time, as the artist maintains, “the space has evolved towards organic, towards the vegetal, towards emphasizing details and fluid characters, similar to thinking processes, in a continuous, dynamic transformation.” Moreover, the element of time, present in the animations on the screens and in the Augmented Reality application which plausibly relates the physical object to the virtual world, gives the works not only the authenticity of the meeting with the viewer, but also the suggestion of a stream of consciousness.

Indeed, the subtle use of meanings beyond the appearance of things is one of the main preoccupations of the artist Adrian Grecu. This is how the central theme of the “Cyber ​​Island” should be seen: a reference to the idea of ​​journey, of search and experimentation, a reference to the creation of a (cyber)-place where the imaginary becomes possibility.

Horea Avram

Horea Avram is an art historian, media theorist and independent curator. He researches and writes about art and visual culture in relationship with media technology. Associate Professor at the Department of Cinema and Media, Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Curator for Romania at the Venice Biennale, 1999. He organizes exhibitions for: National Museum for Contemporary Arts Bucharest, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre Toronto, Society for Arts and Technology [SAT] Montreal, Art Museum Cluj, Art Museum Arad, NAG10 Bucharest, Plan B Gallery Cluj, Spațiu Intact Cluj, Paintbrush Factory Cluj, Jecza Gallery Timişoara, Atelier 35 Bucharest etc.

Member of various professional associations such as: NECS – European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, International Society for Intermedial Studies (ISIS), The Union of Visual Artists (UAP), Romania. Member and past president of the AFCN Council – Administration of the National Cultural Fund, Romania. President of AICA-Romania (International Association of Art Critics).

MITTWOCH, 26.04.2023, 19:00 Uhr

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

UKRAINISCHE IMPRESSIONEN

March 8, 2023

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

APRIL 30, 2022, 6 p.m.

Karlstrasse 43, Karlsruhe

“Contemporary Caribbean”

– Unearthing Dialogues –

“An encounter is only the beginning of a separation”

Tony Capellan – Caribbean Contemporary Artist-

 

Caribbean contemporary art is neither wholly indebted to Euro-American artistic traditions nor without its modernisms alongside the contemporary. The group of artists presenting new media expressions [time-based, video, and digital imaging] is committed to making clear that critical narratives are shaped by playful constructions of different new ways of seeing in contemporary art.

Artists are always eager to experiment with new tools, so it’s no surprise that digital media can also offer a creative playground. The group of selected artists’ works parallel with other artistic media. [From painting and drawing to performance.] This New Media selection surveys how Caribbean artists explore digital possibilities and shape how we experience time-based and digital images. As with most fields of human endeavor, digital imaging and information technology have revolutionized art at so many levels that the digital is less a genre or medium than a methodological approach.

The group of Caribbean artists’ time-based works are fragments of memory, imagination, and personal experiences. They are presented as memory-making of the Caribbean as an archipelago and diaspora in shared relation. Caribbean communities are forged, often through artistic expression despite fragmentation and difference across language, geography, and history.

Each artwork draws on the personal and collective memory of multiple lived realities, histories, and art histories across the Caribbean and its diaspora.

 

Jorge Luis Gutierrez

Curatorial Advisor DCS contemporary

“Contemporary Caribbean” forward

“Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves. “
Derek Walcott
– Caribbean poet. Nobel Prize in Literature –

A few months after the opening of the DCS contemporary gallery in the heart of Karlsruhe, as Founder-Director, I proudly present the “Contemporary Caribbean” –Unearthing Dialogues – exhibition.

A trailblazing selection of renowned contemporary artists emerged from the Caribbean. The exhibition is an open dialogue to understand better the development of contemporary arts across the Caribbean region and its Diasporas.

The truth, however, is that the Caribbean, even as a geographical expression, is a very imprecise place that is difficult to define. Populated by a diverse polyglot of peoples, which in whatever combinations of race, religion, language, and culture cohere and coexist. There are Europeans, Africans, Asian Indians, Indonesian Javanese. As well as Chinese, Aboriginal Indians, and many mixes. Perhaps like no other World region so richly varied.

DCS contemporary is an art space committed to including new voices and perspectives into the art experience as a crossed dialogue of cultures. Recent decades have witnessed concerns over representation diversity, inclusion, and equity. It moved from the margins to the center of visual arts, galleries, and museum practice.

The exhibition breaks new ground and makes a valuable contribution to socially engaged thinking and practice in the arts. It not only makes a vivid, compelling case for inclusive curating but provides experiential approaches to enjoy, better understand and take the work forward of the heart-warming Caribbean artists.

The spaces of DCS contemporary will become an open window for music and literary expressions. And of artistic and curatorial dialogues, workshops, and information about contemporary Caribbean art and culture. An authentic German- Caribbean culture crossed conversation.

I wish to thank our audience and the magnificent artists on behalf of the DCS contemporary team, partners, and sponsors. Significantly when creative expressiveness can contribute to uniting artists and all people worldwide. It is as they claim new identities emanating new unearthing dialogues.

Welcome!

Dr. Dana Corina Schmidt

Founder – Director DCS contemporary

ART & Music

DASHA ART

Music: Decebal Badila, Marius Preda

Art evening with photographer and artist DASHA: paintings, photographs and graphic collection.

Amazing musicians will perform for you in a unique creative atmosphere!

 

DCS CONTEMPORARY, Karlstrasse 43, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany

27 November / 18:00

 

 

OPENING EXHIBITION OF DCS CONTEMPORARY

October 2nd, 2021, 16:00

 

EMBRACING   DIALOGUES

 

This selected group of artists is the best definition of the diverse global geographies in a constantly changing world. By in large, the artists’ work, included in this exhibition, rather than analyzing, describing, establishing prefigured contexts, they create from their personal, historical, and cultural circumstances. As it emerges from diverse visions of the world, from their imagery and perspectives. The borderlines thus cease, creating an outstanding synergy of new cultural subjects, energies, and expressions, bursting forth from all sides without national or regional surnames.

The artists included: Isabel Gomez Liebre, Murtathada Al –Jassani, Anmol Mathur, Stefan Beiu, Alfredo Caballero, Anca Sonia, Tina Chirita, Francisco Gordillo, Oana Nelus, Alberto Fernandez Reyes, Miguel Pavel, Lala Rahim, Peter Hillert, Radu Șerban and Dasha Eremeeva.

The eclectic and asymmetric display of artworks is based upon the vision that contemporary art of post-pandemic times does not necessarily depend on the gracious acceptance of Western art patterns. But on complex processes of alternative subjectivities, diverse expressions, and stroke of senses from memory, imagination, and personal experiences.

This exhibition at the heart of Karlsruhe is the departure of an amazing cultural journey. It is by bringing together artists creating moments of shared visions and embracing dialogues. As it will perhaps serve to envision that the beauty of difference is a gesture of affirmation of the universal condition of all humans.