Elke Denda: Schleifen

EXILE, in collaboration with Josey, cordially invites you to the opening of Elke Denda’s solo exhibition entitled Schleifen. Following a 20 year hiatus, Schleifen combines works from the late 1980s and early 1990s together with recent works made since re-engaging creatively with her work and artistic process. Denda’s oeuvre, comprising of abstract relief paintings, reverse glass paintings, video, and floor sculptures, offers a unique stance on a recent history of abstract painting, challenging attitudes towards decoration, ornamentation and display through schematic geometry, animal iconography and motifs often borrowed from her childhood.

Born 1956 in Oberhausen, Germany, Elke Denda studied at the Kunstakademie with Fritz Schwegler and currently lives in Düsseldorf. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Projections, Josey, Norwich (2023), We are stardust, we are golden, Galerie Johnen + Schöttle, Cologne (2008); Galerie Lindig in Paludetto, Nuremberg (2002); Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (1997); Humpty-Dumpty’s Kaleidoskop: A New Generation of German Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1992); Anni Novanta, Galleria Comunale di Arte Moderna, Bologna (1991); Galerie de Lege Ruimte, Brugge (1990); Museum Schloß Hardenberg, Velbert (1988); Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (1988); Galerie Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne (1985); Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich (1984).

The artist has last exhibited in Vienna in 1989 as part of the group exhibition Melencolia at Galerie Grita Insam.
→Elke Denda, ZIB, 2008, video montage, 00:52