Jakob Roepke

b . Germany. Lives and works in Berlin.

ARTIST STATEMENT

  • When looking at Jakob Roepkes abstract relief’s I can let my eyes wander here and there over the coherent geometric shapes, exploring paths up and down, something that could be a geological structure, meandering through something that could be a hilly landscape, overlapping rooftops or some sort of crystalized physignomy. Apart from all these random associations I am still not confined by any narrowing attributions but can still just appreciate these wall objects like an intricate image. Curiously the artist, in his creative process, is confining himself by using only a limited set of shapes, mainly triangles and squares, thus creating a great variation of shapes and shades. The shades of grey display a two-dimensional, mosaic-like image, which is produced via a three-dimensional construction. Depending on the angle and the intensity of light, the picture is changing, a bright lit shape can turn into dark grey when placed in the shadow by a changing illumination.
    Merle Eisenberg, 2018
  • Jakob Roepke began working on a series of miniature plates in 1996 and has since created over 1400 separate pieces. While each small painting is an individual work, they build up networks of reoccurring motives, situations and themes. 
In each picture Roepke continually reinvents scenes for his tiny protagonists, the figures of which are drawn from 19th century Jiu Jitsu and 1970s yoga handbooks. Isolated in seemingly lonely domestic spaces, he throws them into ever changing and unexpected situations as if each work were a piece of iconographic research. The quotidian is turned on its head as the figures ward off monstrous animals, wild geometric figures and strange alien forms. Drawing upon art history, popular culture and the surrealist tradition, each piece is left open to a wealth of contextual interpretations.
Following the surrealist tradition of Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico his tiny collages seem to reference the uncertainty and adversity of 21th century life; yet while the scenes hover between hopelessness and destruction, Roepke’s central figures always seem on the verge of tipping the fight in their favour.

 

Vita

  • Education
  • 1981 - 1988 University for Arts and Design - Offenbach - DE
  • 1986 - 1987 Dept. of Painting & Dept. of Sculpture - Edinburgh College of Art - Edinburgh - UK
  • Solo Exhibitions (Selection)
  • 2020
  • Salon Heidrich - LU
  • (with Ellinor Euler) Kunstverein Neukölln – Berlin - DE
  • 2019
  • Werbung für das Unerklärliche - Kunstsäule Frankfurt - DE
  • rooms above (with Annalehmann-Brauns) - Zionskirche Berlin-Mitte – Berlin - DE
  • Empathetic Dream Construction (with Al Braithwaite) - XVA Gallery – Dubai - AE
  • Foto und Skulptur (with Anna Lehmann-Brauns) - Kunstverein Klein Machnow - DE
  • 2018
  • Szenenbild (with Jelena Fuzinato) - Galerie subject object – Berlin - DE
  • 2017
  • Ulterior Motives – (with Catherine Bourdon und Fabian Weincke) - Kunstprojekte Mannheim - DE
  • Höing und Roepke - Galerie Wildes Weiss – Bremen - DE
  • Mit und ohne Tiere - Galerie Goethel – Hamburg - DE
  • 2016
  • Beiläufige Mühen und verkommene Uhrmacher (with Katrin Hoffert) - Galerie Axel Obiger - Berlin - DE
  • Höhere Gewalt - Galerie Freihand - Neuhaus am Schliersee – Bayern - DE
  • Gegenüberstellung: Herr Roepke und Frau Schirdewahn - Raum für drastische Maßnahmen – Berlin - DE
  • 2015
  • Force Majeure - Murati-Laebe – Berlin and Bismarck - Hamburg - DE
  • 2014
  • Die Enigmatische Falle - KD Kunst – Bremen – DE
  • Force Majeure! - Galerie Daeppen – Basel - CH
  • 2013
  • Innenwelten - Fred Gallery – London – UK
  • Schöne Aussicht - Galerie Maurer – Frankfurt - DE
  • 2011 
  • Private View - Jarmuschek+Partner – Berlin – DE
  • Trespassers No Admittance - Beaver Projects – Kopenhagen - DK
  • 2010
  • Mythenraub und Zufallsfund - Jarmuschek+Partner – Berlin - DE
  • 2009
  • Musterhaus und Tintenhudel - Jarmuschek+Partner – Berlin – DE
  • Enigmatic Chambers - BEAVER PROJECTS – Kopenhagen – DK
  • Braverman Gallery - Tel Aviv - IL
  • 2008  Fred Gallery – London – UK
  • Kammerwunder und Jammerkunde – Jarmuschek – Berlin – DE
  • Absurde Erzählungen (mit Carsten Weitzmann) - Kunsthaus Erfurt - DE
  • 2007 Zimmerwolf und Budenkoller - Jarmuschek+Partner – Berlin - DE
  • Group Exhibitions (Selection)
  • 2020
  • 50/50 - Atelier Grigori Dor - Berlin - DE
  • 2019
  • Prunella Clough – Centenary - Engelbracht Collection - Daniel Marzona Galerie – Berlin – DE
  • Das kleine Format - Kunst PROJEKTE – Mannheim – DE
  • golden shower, toolbox - Finnish Artspace – Berlin – DE
  • Almost Nothing - Galerie Pugliese Levi – Berlin – DE
  • format artspace – Kopenhagen – DK
  • Zweigstelle – Augsburg - DE
  • 2018  
  • Herbstsalon - Kunstsalon Neubrandenburg - DE
  • 42 Contemporary Artists – Enter Art Foundation – Gerichtshöfe – Berlin – DE
  • Interior (curated by Jakob Roepke) – Duplex - Berlin – DE
  • THE B(L)ANK STATEMENT - Berliner Sparkasse – Berlin - DE
  • Lettre International 30 with Tobias Rehberger, Robert Longo, Ai Weiwei - Jubiläumsausgabe
  • vom Stadel zum Wolkenkratzer - Galerie Koch – Hannover - DE
  • 2017
  • unease – Das Unbehagen - Galerie Wagner und Partner – Berlin - DE
  • 2016
  • EDEN (with Heiko Dobbertin und Sylvia Dallmann) - Kunstverein Goldberg – DE
  • Hinter den Bergen das Meer - Galerie Walderdorff – München - DE
  • Brunner/Klotz/Orinska/Roepke – DeutscheWohnen – Berlin - DE
  • 4 Artists from Berlin - Merc-Studio – Miami - USA
  • 2015
  • Hinter den Bergen das Meer - Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie – Limburg - DE
  • Galerie 102 at Miami Beach – Miami - USA
  • 2014
  • Auflage#1 - GalerieGUM – Bielefeld – DE
  • Blattformer - Galerie LAGE EGAL – Berlin – DE
  • Künstler, zeichne mir - Semjon Contemporary Berlin – DE
  • Curious and Curiouser – XVA – Dubai - AE
  • 2013
  • Come Closer - Feinberg Projects - Tel Aviv – IL
  • Jubilee - LSD-Gallery – Berlin - DE
  • MISSING (about absence) curated by Jakob Roepke – Gerichtshöfe - Berlin - DE
  • 2011
  • Collections - Bart Gallery – Nimwegen – NL
  • Remix - The International Collage Center - Samek Art Gallery – Lewisburg – USA
  • Existenzen - Gallery 4. Stock – Berlin - DE
  • 3 Wünsche frei - Gallery Johannistrasse – Erfurt – DE
  • Another Marriage? Between the Narrative and the Abstract - Platform for Contemporary Arts – Berlin - DE
  • Residencies
  • Since 2017 curator of artist residency in a manor in Mecklenburg - DE
  • 2014 Guest artist - Lettre International Magazine – Berlin - DE
  • 1991 Great Junction Studios Leith – Edinburgh - UK
  • 1992 - 1994 WASP-Studios Patriothall- Edinburgh - UK
  • Awards & Grants
  • 2014 Short-listed - Kunst am Bau der Barenboim-Said Akademie – Berlin - DE
  • 2008 SWAB Art Prize - Barcelona - es
  • 2007 Preis Kunstforum Löwenhof - Frankfurt am Main - DE
  • 1997 Atelier Grant ‘Artists Unlimited’ – Bielefeld - DE
  • 1995 Atelier Grant - Otto-Flath-Stiftung - Bad Segeberg - DE
  • 1986-1988 Grant Johann-Mosbach-Stiftung

To: Jakob Roepke

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
CONTACT ARTIST
DOWNLOAD PROFILE

Works by Jakob Roepke

Loading artwork...