Press Release

Rolf A. Kluenter Gallery Van Der Straeten

Portals of the Labyrinth April 15 - May 29, 2005
Portals of the Labyrinth contains selected works providing the borderline between the real existing
room and the imagined or virtual room. Portals are inter-dimensional openings, doorways and bridges
that transport entities from one reality to another. A labyrinth has only one path. The way in is the way
out. The labyrinth is a metaphor for life's journey.
Kluenter’s extensive use of paper as the primary ground and substance of this installation reminds the
viewer that paper is often being utilized to cover and wrap, to hide and conceal. The predominant use
of the color black represents a conscious reduction of aesthetic choice - it's either black or white, like a
binary system. While brilliant white color is used to give accents and contrast, the deep shimmering
black color of the paper prevails - the artist often even dispensing with the use of white at all, letting
the paper's shape and structure speak for itself. The use of the color black again serves to underline
the slightly mysterious connotations of the installation - creating a sense of darkness and infinity, also
indicating forgetfulness and secrecy.
Manifestly, Rolf A. Kluenter’s work has been permeated by the art, culture and history of Nepal, India
and China, where the artist has spent the past 25 years. However, Kluenter's abstractions are imbued
with inventive elements of advanced Western art: basic geometric elements calligraphically
condensed; subtle running colors casting imaginary spaces; lines and hatching; application of the
brush and meander, glazes and overlapping; blank spaces and contrast.
During the past few years, Kluenter exclusively restricts himself to the material of paper. He uses thick
handmade paper with rough borders and irregular surfaces, freak and shaped forms to create
paintings, objects and giant paper installations. His entire repertoire of non-representational filigree
shapes, and essentially free interplay of artistic elements, is reminiscent of, but not identical with,
handwriting.
Kluenter, an on-going experimenter in his domain, often displays his objects in series as ever so many
declinations of basic emotional positions. His works, as himself, are situated between cultures,
crossing borders, intersecting at cross-cultural pathways in the concrete as well as the artistic
domains.
Rolf A. Kluenter was born in Buervenich (near Cologne), Germany in 1956. In 1980, while studying
painting at the Kunstakademie (Academy of Fine Arts) in Duesseldorf, he received a scholarship to go
to Nepal. In 1982, he received his Meisterschueler (Masters) from the Duesseldorf Kunstakademie,
and in 1988, he accepted an assistant professorship at the Tribhuvan University Campus of Fine Arts
in Katmandu, Nepal, where he served until 1994. He has been regularly exhibiting in Europe, USA,
Australia and China since 1980. Rolf A. Kluenter lives and works in Shanghai (China), but he also
maintains studios in Katmandu (Nepal) and Cologne (Germany).
An exhibition catalog, titled “Rolf A. Kluenter - Portals of the Labyrinth” will be available at the Gallery
Van Der Straeten.

April 15, 2005 Exhibition Opening

Special Event: Rolf A. Kluenter meets Chris Hinze
Rolf A. Kluenter and Chris Hinze first met in Lhasa (Tibet) in summer 1993. In the early 90s, Chris
Hinze (Flutes/Keyboards & Programming) extensively traveled throughout Tibet and the Indian
continent and recorded original sounds from the wide variety of those cultures visited. During the
opening event, Chris Hinze will live-perform his compositions on flute presenting a totally new sound of
jazz mixed with the flavor of these rich musical traditions from Asia. Rolf A. Kluenter will elaborate on
related stories and backgrounds. Both artists are planning a joint multimedia project in China.

May 19, 2005 Symposium Melting Identities Chinese and European Art Contact
Jointly organized by Goethe Institute and Gallery Van der Straeten, Amsterdam
Time: 7-10 pm
Venue: Goethe Institute, Herengracht 470, Amsterdam
Panel: Rolf A. Kluenter, artist, Shanghai,
Magdalena Kroener, author, art critic, Duesseldorf,
Jonathan Liu, author, free-lance curator, Cologne-Hong Kong..

For further information, please contact: Gallery Van Der Straeten

Phone: ++ 31 20 6623746 Fax: ++ 31 20 3302710 Singel 282 hs Amsterdam 1016 AD NL
galvds@xs4all.nl www.galeries.nl/vanderstraeten