IMPERFECTIONS at Metaphor Athens, curated group exhibition 2024

For this group exhibition in Athens, Katja Sonnewend has chosen a selection of "imperfect" portraits of friends, places and things. Over the past 15 years, she has photographed on analogue Polaroid film as well as with various digital cameras. The serene and carefully structured images focus on the commonalities of modern urban environments, which, despite their different locations, are linked by very similar means of expression. People, architecture and objects form new relationships according to a peculiar logic, conveying specific moods or overarching concepts such as space and time.

Joanna Pawlowska:

“Building on my recent projects such as Fixation and ID, I now move on to explore the theme of youth and masculinities. In a process one could conceptualise as 'queering' the portrait, I often deprive the photographed of their ready-made-image. My photographs obscure and interfere with elements such as the eyes and the face; both fundamental for traditional, realistic, or 'perfect' portraiture. Within the matrix of identity politics, those creative disruptions, introducing external and material elements into the printed page, and deepening tension between what is hidden and what is visible are types of interventions I find both complex and generative.”

Solo show (self curated)

“I’m a Passenger” at Spaceplaceone gallery in Nizhny Tagil, Ural.

Opening 28th of September 2023

Katja Sonnewend:

"As a photographer, I have always been intrigued by what is happening out there: the foreign, the unknown. Beauty does not matter; what interests me has to appeal to my eye and inspire me, not only on what regards the aesthetics of a particular image but also its composition.

My whole life I have traveled a lot. I had to move around a lot especially since I was a refugee child and thus had many homes. To this day I am not particularly drawn to any place and tend to be a wanderer. This gives me the objectivity I need to find a good subject and the new image I am looking for.

In my photography, I often strive to capture moments, instances that only gain single chance because I happened to be the observer, a passenger fortunate enough to press the shutter release at a precise second."

F95 ARTSHOWROOM, June 15, 2007

The F95 ARTSHOWROOM presented young artists from various fields.

SESSION#1 was entitled “ON THE RUN” and showed works by 4 artists who artistically interpreted the theme of fashion using a nylon stocking as an example.

Katja Sonnewend, curator of the F95 ARTSHOWROOM SESSIONS: “I see the nylon stocking as symbolic of fashion in general. An item of clothing that not only every woman has in her wardrobe.”

Artists: Afra Willems from the Netherlands (paintings), Daavid Mörtl from Germany with drawings. Adam Kalderon from Israel shows a video installation and Katja Sonnewend (Poland) presents photos and sculptures.

Daavid Mörtl (drawing)

Afra Willems (installation)

F95 store meets art. Four selected artists are showing their especially fort his project created art pieces in the showroom of F95 store in Frankfurter Allee Berlin Friedrichshain. “On the Run” is the headline of the show which was inspiring the artists from different countries and disciplines to make a series of works connected to fashion, especially nylon tights.

Poster artwork by Sebastian Sonnewend