BRIGIT NAEF, 2022
Sunset, 2022 53.5 x 39 x 20.5 cm Karton, Acryl, Gummi, Wellkarton
Vegas, 2021 140 x 39.5 x 5.5 cm Karton, Acryl, Lack, Metallnieten, Papier
Left hand, 2021 162 x 18 x 2.3 cm Karton, Textil, Stahl
Left hand, 2021 162 x 18 x 2.3 cm Karton, Textil, Stahl
Sulfur House, 2021 62.5 x 25 x 21 cm Karton, Acryl
A Casa, 2021 40.5 x 30.5 x 2 cm Karton, Acryl, Lack, leimgetränkter Karton
Mai Tai, 2021 47 x 75 x 2 cm Karton, Hanfschnur, Glasfarbe, Lack
Mai Tai, 2021 47 x 75 x 2 cm Karton, Hanfschnur, Glasfarbe, Lack
I never went to Rome, 2020 59 x 100 x 12 cm Karton, Blattsilber, Acryl, Emaillefarbe
Candy, 2020 53 x 24.5 x 27 cm Karton, Acryl, Lack
5 Crystal Balls, 2019 – 2020 28 x 56 x 14.5 cm Holz, leimgetränkter Karton, Taft, Kristallkugeln
o.T., 2020 66 x 35 x 11.5 cm Karton, Acryl
Bonfire, 2020 68 x 80 x 2 cm Karton, Acryl, Nagellack, Lack
Ghost, 2019 – 2020 198 x 34 x 11 cm Karton, Blattsilber, Metallketten, Lack
Devil in the sky, 2019 – 2020 48 x 47 x 3 cm Karton, Glasperlen, Acryl, Lack
Ausstellungsansicht, Werkschau 2021, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich
Ausstellungsansicht, Phantoms and ghosts are here by my side, mit Marianne Müller, Zürich
Ausstellungsansicht, Whispering walls, Last Tango, Zürich
BRIGIT NAEF By Marie DuPasquier
The rough cemented grain of a modern architecture, a hummed excerpt of Jolene or the wash painted-like color of a favorite cocktail. Many are the fragments captured by Brigit Naef to constitute her assortment. Collected over time, they are kept in the grid of her mind. According to her desire, mood and humor, she is then able to draw materials, forms, colors, patterns out of this infinite repertoire and select the adequate components to form the next piece. It will start somewhere and finish elsewhere. Brigit Naef is guided by associations. If it is about finding the right material relationships, the appropriate paint or lacquer adhering to the specific surface, she would start over and over until she gets the exact formula and goes on, eventually, sometimes for very long periods of time. Although, her practice does not consist solely of a sum of physical components but consciously involves a whole set of more or less abstract relationships. The specific sonority of a title; a word to be associated with a rosy almost marbled glaze; sounds and speech, fantasy or everyday anecdotes nourish in a quasi-synesthetic way the same ambition. Brigit Naef works with associations of materials and ideas, she likes false evidences, makebelieves to gently mislead the viewer. As soon as a shape would seem too familiar, even just like a blurry souvenir of a faraway recurrent reverie, she would willingly rearrange the assemblage to distort obvious connotations. Thus, going beyond functionalities and common uses of materials to make something else appear is part of her procedure. If textile, wood, glass, metal or pearl chains are regularly part of her pieces, her favored material remains first and foremost cardboard. It is with ease and rigor that she explores its properties and its endless transformational potential. Soft, malleable, stable, resistant. Her enchantment for materiality and assembly techniques stems in part from her long practice as a bookbinder and from the manufacturing of cardboard objects. From this derive her meticulous gestures and attention to technique and method. Not denying any proximity to design and crafts, she nevertheless constantly strives – in a subtle game of adherence and rejection – to escape their comfort and detach from them so as not to burden the pieces with these legacies.
The artist flirts cheerfully with architecture and ornamentation, as her works could project us into a bewildering spatiality, semblance of scale model or interior adornment, if their perspectives were not immediately obstructed. Wall piece, painting or object; sculpture and plinth at the same time, architectonic features. Composite elements, certainly. Their elegant simplicity disconcerts and makes them unclassifiable. Without being easily deciphered, the artworks aim to generously trigger a wide variety of emotions and titillate a spontaneous response from the viewer. Frisky and with a certain nonchalance, Brigit Naef elicits upwell sensations by the appreciation of the ordinary and the observation of simple beauty.
CV BRIGIT NAEF
1962 1980 – 1984 2017– 2020
lebt und arbeitet in Zürich Lehre als Handbuchbinderin Gastdozentin an der ZHdK, BA Fine Arts, Zürich
Seit 1999 arbeite ich als selbständig Erwerbende im eigenen Atelier in Zürich. Ich stelle eine aufwendig gearbeitete Kollektion von Schachteln her und produziere Kartonagen für Künstler, Restauratoren und eine Vielzahl von Kunden. Ab 2010 begann ich mit den freien Arbeiten und seither bin ich Kunsthandwerkerin und Künstlerin. Seit ein paar Jahren gewinnt meine künstlerische Arbeit an Sichtbarkeit. Meine Werke wurden in Ausstellungen in der Schweiz gezeigt und von der Kunstsammlung des Kantons Zürich sowie des Museums für Gestaltung Zürich angekauft. Ausstellungen: 2021 2020 2020 2016 2014 2011 2009 2007 2005 1992 1989
Werkschau 2021, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich Phantoms and ghosts are here by my side, mit Marianne Müller, Zürich Whispering walls, Last tango, Zürich ( Gruppe ) Le noir dedans, le manoir, Martigny, kuratiert von Thomas Julier und Martin Jaeggi ( Gruppe ) Against the sun, Taylor Macklin, Zürich ( Gruppe ) Hochdosiert, Deggenheim DE ( Gruppe ) Mit Grazia Schifferli, Keramik, Zürich Thinking hands, Formforum, Bern ( Gruppe ) Mit Grazia Schifferli, Keramik, Zürich Seven, Kammgarn, Schaffhausen ( Gruppe ) Eigenarten, Projektraum, Zürich ( Gruppe )
Sammlungen: 2003 2020
Museum für Gestaltung Kunstsammlung, Kanton Zürich
Brigit Naef Am Wasser 55 8049 Zürich +41 (0)43 818 44 45 +41 (0)79 708 86 55 mail@brigitnaef.com
Fotos: Thomas Julier