Painting is a solitary medium and the painter, a soloist. Christoph Schellberg reflects on these preconditions without a trace of opportunism. Rather, he’s guided by a fundamental trust in his resources – colour, line, space and light. These means transform his images gradually, but also, in rare moments, surprisingly and erratically. During our meeting, he said his images were more like “Jazz, not Punk”, in describing the basic tone of his works. They aren’t loud, provocative and snotty forms of protest, but are rather determined by an intuitive and cultivated form of improvisation. As a painter, Christoph Schellberg is precisely aware of the medium’s tradition and technical possibilities. He distrusts the cheap theoretical proclamations about the end of painting and ventures the medium’s continuation without the need to display epigonic weakness.
Christoph Schellberg’s images are autonomous. None of his forerunners have made paintings which show transparency and shadow so purely without being representational. His images are painted alla prima. They develop through a careful process of improvisation which may seem easier to the viewer than it actually is. They unfold their strong effects almost effortlessly.
Schellberg’s paintings are non-representational and cannot be well represented, making them indispensable. In the truest sense of the word, they are original. They open up experiences for the viewer which cannot otherwise be had.
Kay Heymer, Museum Küppersmühle, Duisburg, Curator Modern & Contemporary (Excerpt on the occasion of the publication Christoph Schellberg, More Eggs)
Christoph Schellberg (*1973 in Düsseldorf) lives and works in Düsseldorf. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg and the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf (Jan Dibbets).
Christoph Schellberg´s work has been shown in numerous international exhibitions, including Marta Museum, Herford; Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt; Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf, Switzerland; Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen; Suermondt Ludwig Museum, Aachen; Wilkinson Gallery, London; Galerie Bernd Kugler, Innsbruck, Austria; Jablonka Lühn, Cologne.
The artist is represented in various international institutional collections, including Sammlung zeitgenössische Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden; Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, NY, USA; Deutsche Bundesbank Collection, Frankfurt; Brandhorst Collection, Munich; Falkenberg Collection, Hamburg; Ringier Collection, Zurich, Switzerland; SSK Foundation, Cologne; CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain; Schürmann Collection, Berlin & Herzogenrath and Deutsche Bank AG Collection, Frankfurt.