Jonny Star

Jonny Star (born December 26, 1964 in Düsseldorf ) is a German artist and curator . Until 2011 she was artistically active under her maiden name Gabriele-Maria Scheda. She lives and works in Berlin and New York City .

Life

Jonny Star spent the first 10 years of her life in Düsseldorf and the surrounding area before she moved to Hochsauerland in North Rhine-Westphalia with her parents and two sisters . Her parents opened an alternative hotel there, which in the 1970s was the holiday destination of the Düsseldorf art and theater scene, to which Jonny Star's mother belonged from the late 1960s in the circle of the American director and artistic director Ernest Martin . In 1982 Jonny Star left her home and moved in the West Berlin " subculture ". In 1990 she passed her Abitur in a women's class at the school for adult education (Berlin) and studied psychology at the TU Berlin from 1991 to 1996 . From 1985 to 1992 Jonny Star was co-operator of the cult bar Café Anfall in Berlin-Kreuzberg . She traveled the world and stayed for long periods in France , Spain and Portugal , in the USA , Mexico , Guatemala , Honduras , Nicaragua , Costa Rica as well as Morocco , Algeria , Mali , Burkina Faso and Niger before moving full-time in 1996 became active as an artist. From 1997 to 1999 she learned mold making and the technique of bronze casting in the Berlin art foundry Hermann Noack . In the years 1999 to 2005, numerous stays in Portugal followed.

plant

In her work she uses various materials and media, such as bronze , photography , textiles and fabric and installation elements , which she often connects with one another. Star works in groups of works that she usually develops over several years and in parallel. In early bronze sculptures such as the series “Dear Germaine” (1998) or “and suddenly” (1998–99), she created human-like fantasy beings that took up contrasts such as weight and lightness, movement and stasis, as well as themes of imprisonment, exposure and suffering. In bronzes from the series “all together” (2001), “search a journey” (2003) “wachen sein dead” (2009-10) the artist also used found objects from nature. In groups of works such as “Jetzt komm ich” (2007) or the wall cushions known as “soft objects”, such as “My Flowerself” (2010), “Jonny is Back” (2011) or “kommret 'dich aus” (2012) Jonny Star deals with her own biography .

Since the name change from Gabriele-Maria Scheda to Jonny Star in 2011, topics that deal with sexuality , physicality , gender roles and identity , as well as their social reception , have increasingly come to the fore . In groups of works such as “Sex Sells” (2013), “Toy Girls” (2014), “Toy Boys” (2014) or “Free Your Soul” (2015), Star takes up heterosexual and homosexual internet pornography . She transfers videos photographed on the screen or photos from pornographic notebooks onto fabric and places them like collages on embroidery doilies or creates fabric objects and tapestries that reveal stereotypes or taboo sexual topics that exist in our society. Many of the artist's works criticize the structures of the global art market , in her opinion

"Should be open and unconventional, but represent one of the most conservative patriarchal systems."

- Jonny Star in a sleek interview with Tina Sauerländer, February 24, 2015

Exhibition series

Jonny Star develops group exhibitions in private living spaces such as her own apartment or in gallery and project rooms in which she undertakes spatial interventions that create the intimacy of private spaces. Her main interest lies above all in the formation of a participatory community of artists and visitors to the respective exhibition, as well as the creation of greater social awareness of the necessity of art in everyday life. She doesn't necessarily see herself as a curator, but rather as someone who

"Bringing people together."

- Jonny Star in an ex-Berlin interview with Fridey Mickel, June 11, 2014

The exhibitions are not for profit and were sponsored by the Berlin Senate Chancellery for Cultural Affairs or financed through crowdfunding campaigns.

Jonny's (2007-2009)

The art project Jonny's initiated by Jonny Star is primarily a Portuguese shop (later with a café) in part of the artist's apartment, a shop in Berlin-Kreuzberg . Rare foodstuffs obtained directly from the manufacturer in Portugal were sold there, which differed from conventional foodstuffs primarily through their unusual and sometimes anachronistic packaging design. In the background, it was an extensive art installation in which changing exhibitions by various artists were shown. On the shelves, among the groceries and housewares, there were also bronze works, collages and paintings. Everyday life and art were on an equal footing here.

Sweet Home (2011-2013)

From the art project Jonny's, Star developed the exhibition space Sweet Home in March 2011, which was also located in Berlin-Kreuzberg, in part of the artist's apartment. International artists were invited to exhibit their work as part of a solo exhibition in an exuberant living room staged by Star. In December 2011, Sweet Home was invited to exhibit at the Scope Art Show Miami 2011 art fair.

Superuschi (from 2013)

The Superuschi exhibition series (from March 2013) emerged from star projects Sweet Home (2011–2013) and Jonny's (2007–2009). International visual or performative artists take part and, together with Star, reflect on a specific topic. The result is an exhibition that allows interaction between space, objects, artists and guests, in the sense of a social sculpture . The artists have the opportunity to network with one another, and the visitors have the opportunity to participate more directly in the visual and performing arts. The Superuschi exhibition “kitchen girls & toy boys” at the Rush Arts Gallery in New York City in 2015 was funded by the Berlin Senate Chancellery for Cultural Affairs.

Publications

• Heuchelmund,  Karen-Susan Fessel , erotic stories with photographs by Gabriele-Maria Scheda (Jonny Star), konkursbuch Verlag Claudia Gehrke, Tübingen 1995
• Jonny Star. See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me, with text contributions by Eva Meyer-Hermann , Tina Sauerländer, Ralf Hanselle, Fern Verlag , Berlin 2016

Scholarships and Awards

• 2014 Travel Grant Cultural Exchange of the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department, supported group show in NYC curated by Jonny Star (Superuschi)
• 2016 Ruth Katzman Scholarship, The League Residency At Vyt, New York 2016

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1996: “Weltstadt Berlin” schrotter & engel, Berlin
• 1999: "and suddenly", schrotter & engel, Berlin
• 2001: “all together”, Centro Cultural, Vila do Bispo, Portugal
• 2002: "all together" Pasteur in the Milchhof, Berlin
• 2002: "will fly", gallery in the administrative court, Kassel
• 2004: “looking for a journey”, Gallery Porca Preta, Monchique, Portugal
• 2006: "long long", Galeria Abraço, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2010: "my flowerself" Gallery Crystal Ball, Berlin
• 2010: "Now I come", house on Lützowplatz / studio gallery, Berlin
• 2012: “good for you”, Klötze und Schinken, Berlin
• 2013: "Sex Sells", The Tornado and The One, San Francisco, USA
• 2014: "Intergalaktisch", Rompone artspace, Cologne
• 2014: “le puff”, Tatau Obscur, Berlin
• 2015: "My Way", Kreuzberg Pavilion, Berlin
• 2016 See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me , Kosmetiksalo Bar Babette, Berlin

Works in private collections

• Heilhausstiftung Ursa Paul, Kassel, Germany
• Sparkasse Hochsauerland, Germany
• Haupt Collection , Berlin, Germany

Web links

• Exhibition archive of the artist on kunstaspekte.de
• Interview with the artist on sleek.com
• Interview with the artist on exberliner.com
• Website of the artist
• Superuschi website
• Videos of Jonny Star on Vimeo

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jonny Star on Artfacts. Retrieved March 28, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Interview by Virginia Villari, Creaminology, New York, 2013 .
3. ↑ Jonny Star in a Sleek interview with Tina Sauerländer
4. ↑ Jonny Star in an ex-Berlin interview with Fridey Mickel
5. ↑ Link to Jonny's on the Superuschi website ( memento of the original from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Link to Sweet Home on the Superuschi website ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Superuschi's website
8. ↑ kitchen girls & toy boys curated by Jonny Star, Rush Arts Gallery, NYC
9. ↑ Kitchen Girls & Toy Boys, Rush Arts Gallery, video
10. ^ Art For Progress, New York by Frank Jackson, March 2015
11. ↑ Haus am Lützowplatz, Now I come , Jonny Star (Gabriele-Maria Scheda)
12. ↑ Rompone artspace, Jonny Star, Intergalactic
13. ↑ [1]
14. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.