Ulrike Mohr: The Nature of Things

Second Shift was proud to host Berlin-based artist Ulrike Mohr’s The Nature of Things: an exhibition of recent sculptures and an exploration of texture and sound. Mohr’s work is characterized by her “spatial drawings”: sculptures created from the careful organization of carbonized objects set against the white wall of the gallery. 
 

Mohr began her art career with charcoal drawings; but the tool with which she drew became more fascinating to her than the drawings themselves. During a solo show in Germany, Mohr began experimenting with charcoal as her media, rather than just her tool. Thus her “spatial drawings” were conceived. These “drawings” began as lines created out of charcoal sticks upon the walls of the gallery. Over time, Mohr began using a process of carbonization to turn everyday objects and nature into charcoal for her drawings. Tree branches, piano keys, jewelry and rulers turn jet black in the process, chemically transforming into pure carbon. 
 

Ulrike Mohr´s artistic approach utilizes material transformation processes that are influenced by complex research, and also by chance occurrences. Subtle textures of everyday objects are as important to her as the attempt to uncover relationships between aesthetics and science – present and past. The Nature of Things is a journey through some of the different textures of our world. Rendered in carbon, their stark yet minimalist display invites us to pause, and contemplate the beauty of the everyday objects that surround us.

Ulrike Mohr was born in Germany, lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She studied Fine Art / Sculpture at Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin with an exchange at the Academy of Fine Art Trondheim, Norway. In 2004, following one year of „Master-Class-Studies“, she received the academic title „Meisterschülerin“.

She exhibits frequently in international solo and group shows and realized diverse public art-in-architecture projects. Mohr was recipient of the Elsa-Neumann-Stipendium from the State of Berlin, the Mart Stam Prize and numerous grants such as the Istanbul Grant of the Berlin Senate and Stiftung Kunstfonds.