Waldemar Zimbelmann’s work shifts between painting and drawing, while the characteristics of drawing are of fundamental nature to his work. Sometimes using personal or anonymous photographic images as a point of departure, the artist devises a subtle, sensitive visual language that creates its subjects in an overlap of figuration and abstraction. His paintings emerge from a process of overpainting, which is reflected thematically as the passing of a situation.
His works articulate themselves in a multi-layered painting style that reveal his drawing origins, which include the technique of scratching, scribing and scraping. In doing so, Waldemar always attempts to immerse the viewer in the world he creates. His works force the viewer to perceive these imaginary worlds as allegories for human experience and emotion.
The artist is now increasingly focusing on portraits, which he creates primarily in small formats. In these, he conjoins people from his immediate surroundings as well as fictional characters, their shape rooted in his imagination. Posing alone or in groups, these figures seem like silent protagonists, their wordless but expressive eyes turned to the viewers alone, or – seeing the paintings in succession – collectively.
Born in Agadyr, Kazachstan in 1984.
Lives and works in Karlsruhe, Germany
EDUCATION
2004 – 2009
Studium an der staatlichen Akademie der bildenen Künste Karlsruhe bei Proff. Erwin Gross
2009 – 2010
Meisterschüler bei Prof. Erwin Gross
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Der Kreis ist rund Die Ellipse ist oval Der Kreis ist kugelrund Der Mensch ist jovial, Galerie Meyer Riegger, Berlin
Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Rudolf-Scharpf-Galerie, Ludwigshafen
2019
Father, let the eyes be yours, Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2018
Was sie zeigen und verschweigen, Waldemar Zimbelmann und Janusz Czech, Nordheimer Scheune, Nordheim
2016
My Hands Have Vanished, China Art Objects, Los Angeles
Waldemar Zimbelmann, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
2015
Ornis A. Gallery, Amsterdam
Cross Eyed Notion, Meyer Riegger, Berlin
2013
SYMBIOSE, Meyer Riegger, Berlin
2012
Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
2011
Artissima 18 Turin, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
2008
Poor Memory, Bendixen Contemporary Copenhagen
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
Ann Greene Kelly, Dan Herschlein, Heidi Hahn, Kent O’Conner, Maja Ruznic, Patricia Ayres, Shikeith, Sonya Derviz and Waldemar Zimbelmann, Matthew Brown Los Angeles, LA
Give me a reason, Villa Gellertstrasse, Karlsruhe
Projektspace Insect Gallery, Los Angeles
Ándenes, Pool Projekspace, Karlsruhe
Sonne statt Regen, Galerie Anja Knoess, Köln
2018
O Youth and Beauty!, Waldemar Zimbelmann, Anna Bjerger, Louis Frantino, MAN_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro
DELTABEBEN – Regionale 2018, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum & Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, DE
2017
And then there were none, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
2013
Selections from the Grunwald Center and the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
LIGEGYLDIGT HVORHEN, BLOT UDENFOR VERDEN, Gallerie Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
2012
Gallery Weekend Berlin, Meyer Riegger, Berlin
Baden-Württemberg 60. 2012, Städtisches Kunstmuseum Singen
2011
Captain Pamphile, Sammlung Falckenberg/Deichtorhallen Hamburg
2012
Baden-Württemberg 60. 2012, Städtisches Kunstmuseum Singen
2010
Passage, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe
Captain Pamphile, Städtische Galerie Waldkraiburg
TOP 10, Meisterschülerausstellung Forum Würth Arlesheim
2009
Schwere,Glück,Beschäftigung, The Forgotten Bar Projekt Berlin
2007
Ökumene, ehem, Autohaus Zschernitz, Karlsruhe