Uwe Hand
* 1952, Schleswig
lives and works in Berlin,
since 1996 lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Lectures at the University of Bellas Artes - Barcelona, Université de Provence - Aix-en-Provence, School of Design - Lucerne, Bauhaus Academy - Weimar, Kunsthochschule Weissensee - Berlin, Muthesius Kunsthochschule - Kiel
1979 Masterclass at Dietmar Lemcke at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin
1973 - 80 studied painting with Ulrich Knispel and Dietmar Lemcke
In his early years Uwe Hand painted trompe l’oeil still lifes, fascinated and inspired by baroque, Netherlandish paintings in a manner unique to him, for his paintings were both autobiographical and loaded with socio-political allusions. Already in those works motives becoming typical of his later work can be seen like the recurring subject of a house for example.
The work entitled „Abdication“ literally marks a temporary endpoint of his naturalistic painting style in 1992 when he fell into a creative crisis. For this portrayal of a teddy bear seated in the shadow of a dramatically lit ladder, Hand found neither a suitable successor nor a plausible method of continuation. As a result, in 1998, he resorts to an almost monochrome abstraction with extremely detailed surface treatment. These large format paintings clearly stem from a time-consuming process despite their inherent eruptive force. After all, Uwe Hand never paints more than eight paintings per year and rather destroys work he deems unsatisfactory than making any artistic compromise. Thus not only the artist’s hand but also time has left indelible traces in each painting.
The gestural structures of his often very heavy canvases are composed of countless layers of color and material that have been worked with all kinds of painterly substances and instruments demanding a high physical effort. Hand vehemently paints, pours and rakes oil and acrylic color, layers of pigment and sand onto the black primer of canvases laid out onto the floor. During the process he scrapes off parts of these layers leaving behind deep, crusty wounds in the skin of his paintings, which are levelled at the end to the effect of still being visible as scars while not forming impasto surfaces. Highly condensed, the work provokes in its immediacy an overpowering structure, which throws the viewer back at himself and leaves him hardly any possibilities of distancing himself. Even if his works were aesthetically close to the material and structure paintings by Jean Dubuffet, Jean Fautrier or Antoni Tapies, Uwe Hand’s technique is not really comparable to that of the before-mentioned artists but quite unique.
From the turn of the millennium, his paintings are closer to the old masters of film and photography than to classical painting. You can clearly see a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, Andrej Tarkowsky, Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson. The most important reference point, however, is to this day David Lynch.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020 Was immer du siehst, (with Eike Lohmeyer-Hand), Galerie Brennwald, Kiel, Germany
2019
Stadt – Land – Fluss, Villa van Delden, Stadt Ahaus, Germany
Wish you where here, Gallerie Pfundt, Berlin, Germany
2018 Painter, Cermak Eisenkraft Pop Up Gallery, SmetanaQ, Prague, Czech Republic
2015 Allerhand á la hand, Reinhardt & Partner at Greskewitz, Kleinitzgalerie, Hamburg, Germany
2014 Hand Made, Till Richter Museum, Buggenhagen, Germany
2013
Gallery Lux Berlin, Germany
Associacio Sant Lluc by l'Art de Mataro, Barcelona, Spain
Art Karlsruhe with Galerie Lux Berlin, Germany
2011 Gallery Lux Berlin, Germany
2006 The Beginning and the End, Galerie Claudius, Hamburg, Germany (catalog)
1996 Gallery at Savignyplatz, Berlin, Germany
1992 The Loneliness of Things, Galerie am Savignyplatz, Berlin, Germany (catalog)
1984 Gallery List, Hanover, Germany
1983 Art Society, Utrecht, Nederlands
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 Landschaften, Galerie Schmalfuss, Berlin, Germany
2018
Art Karlsruhe, with Galerie Pfundt, Karlsruhe, Germany
Art Paris, with Cermak Eisenkraft, Paris, France
2+2=4 SEZ, with Werner Liebmann und Elena Tamburini, Berlin, Germany
Das Tier, Galerie Knauber, Berlin, Germany
2016 Here and now / Hier und jetzt, Atala, Berlin, Germany
2016 Marine, UdK, Berlin, Germany
2015
Between man and nature, Till Richter Museum – Schloss Buggenhagen, Germany
Zoo, Udk, Berlin, Germany
From B. to A., news from the capital / Von B. nach A., neues aus Hauptstadt, Peters-Barenbrock Gallery, Ahrenshoop, Germany
2014 Master‘s Voice, SEZ, Berlin, Germany
2013 Papers / Papiere, UdK, Berlin, Germany
2012 Paint it black, UdK, Berlin, Germany
2011 Ecet, UdK, Berlin, Germany
2010
Hand & friends, pelsleusdenathome, Berlin, Germany
Hand & friends, UdK , Berlin, Germany
2008 30 against 3 000 000. Skulptures and paintings from Berlin / 30 gegen 3 000 000. Skulptur und Malerei aus Berlin, Kulturforum Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, Germany
2007
sputnik 1. New painting from Berlin / sputnik 1. Neue Malerei aus Berlin, Galerie Claudius, Hamburg, Germany
„What’s new?“, Galerie Brenneke, Berlin, Germany
1973–1997 Group exhibitions amongst others in Berlin / Gruppenausstellungen u.a. in Berlin, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Kairo, Kiel, Monte Carlo, Nara, Okinawa and Tokyo