KATINKA MANN
“Using photography to reinterpret earlier work, Katinka
Mann has transformed shaped canvases into cut and folded wall reliefs that subtly tamper with the evidence before our eyes. Texture, dimension and above all, spatial relationships are redefined in terms of a new and remarkably effective approach to perception. Ms. Mann has employed light to color and model the original shapes, making interior spaces glow and exterior planes shimmer with unseen radiance. Her Polaroid and Cibachrome prints are then reshaped to confound notions of depth and surface, negative and positive, recession and protrusion. In “Grey” for example, a shadowed area is brought forward, physically defying its implicit depth. “Brown”
turns an apparent hole into an advancing shape. In several works, highlighted textures are belied by the prints’ smooth, shiny surfaces. Colors that sparkle with the metallic luster of hot-rod enamel are also illusory, evoked by the nuances of reflected light.”
New York Times, “Photographs That Confound”
Helen Harrison 10/96
“The kind of originality in Katinka Mann’s work reminds us that on the most powerful characteristics of contemporary art is the spirited license with which materials are creatively combined to invent modes of expression that often have lasting significance. What seems so special here is the way the glistening processed surface generate soft, effervescent visual qualities. Form, of course is Mrs. Mann’s basic sculptural subject, and one reacts strongly to the disciplined architecture of space and spatial illusion that simulates movement and a perspective that is impressively bold for the modest size of the weightless
photo/sculpture construction. These are decidedly original visual experiments, with a straight forward simplicity that keeps them from seeming contrived.”
New York Times “Originality Stands Out in Sculptural Variety” Phyllis Braff 7/83
“ Mann expresses fascination with the phenomena of light. She creates deep saturated transitional tones of color which are consistently changing. The surfaces create the appearance of a metallic finish”
Space 504 Gallery, “A Broad Spectrum” New York, N. Y.
l0/98
“Katinka Mann offers an alternative to this reading of the photograph. Mann uses her canvases as her actual models, transforms them and successfully directs them toward a new end. Oddly enough, by virtue of the transformation,, a precise understanding of her artistic process remains ambiguous. Directed by a keen eye for color and form, she imbues the architectonic emphasis for the exhibit with an equally emphatic and palpable sensitivity.”
Valerie Natsios, Former Editor NY Arts Journal, Central
Hall Gallery, “Lunar Sites”, Pt. Washington, N. Y. ’84
Red Yellow #4 14”x11”x3”
Excerpts from Reviews
“Through her constructions, Katinka Mann seeks the very
nature of light and its ability to create color and bold form.
The artist uses light to create not only color, but the illusion of space and form. In the process she challenges our assumptions about each. In viewing the pieces, it is often difficult to discern between what is concrete and what is illusion where does a shadow end and the actual passage of space begin. Moreover, the pieces seem to capture the very nature of their creation: light seems to emanate from within, rather than as a reflection of the world around them.”
Heckscher Museum of Art @Bryant Library, Janie Welker, Asst. Curator of Photography, Exhibition Brochure,
“Inner Light” 1/01
“There is a high-tech quality inherent in the glossy surfaces of Ms. Mann’s three dimensional photographic constructions and this gives them a very contemporary character. Ms. Mann’s freestanding pieces are part of a series of geometric constructions she has been exploring since the mid-1980’s. A vertical slit allowing an illuminated stripe and variable shadows is a complex feature in recent examples It is a direction with considerable potential.”
New York Times, Phyllis Braff, 1/01
“Her canvas wood constructions are in a way bamboozlers, hoodwinking us into believing that they are things they are in reality not. The works are stationary, fixed to and suspended from the walls, and yet they appear to move through the gallery interior as if they were unmanned hang gliders or ingenious Concorde miniatures. The works can be big and yet they defy their size with an appearance of lightness. And for as simple as they are, the pieces are charged with romanticism. The canvas, which is unrelieved with design or paint, shows that it has a multiple personality, generating stimulating patterns of light and shadow.”
New York Times, “ViewThrough A Classical Prism”,
David L. Shirey, Central Hall Gallery, ll/77
