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ARTEMIS HERBER

Drawing, Painting, Sculpture / Installation, Visual / Media

I combine the contemporary with myths that rise from the deep time, where memory has sedimented into geological layers and histories of exploitation from tectonic activities are stored. I share underlying tales embedded into a new layer as a geological force transforming the planet.

About the Artist

Born and raised in Germany, Artemis Herber has studied Fine Arts at the University of Paderborn, Germany. She holds an MFA in painting. As an assistant professor she taught in the Psychology of Visual Perception at the University of Paderborn. With her MA Ed and MAT from the Seminar of Esslingen (Stuttgart) she taught until 2002. Until then she was promoted as a State Supervisor for the Arts, a Commission Member for Curriculum Development, Chairwoman for Final Examinations, Multiplicator for Art and Supervisor for Advanced Education, and Referent and Advisor for Central/Regional Events and Continued Education. She received several awards for projects in art and education. In 2002 she moved with her family to the United States. Since then, she has continuously established her artistic career widely in the US and internationally. Artemis Herber is an award-winning artist in both mediums of sculpture and painting. Being of Greek heritage, she developed concepts on how humans live in shared spheres towards current conditions on Earth. In the context of deep time and myths she explores how humans have affected the Earth’s environment, geology, and its climate. Her research upon the Anthropocene embedded in the field of polit-myth and experimental geography has been deepened through residencies at Rensing Center SC, theCoLAB, London, Skopelos Foundation of Arts, Greece, The Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard's University, USA, and The Delphic Preview 2021, Greece. Artemis Herber has exhibited in US, Germany, UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. Highlights include Villa Bianca, "Art as Key to Conflict Resulotion," Thessaloniki, Greece, Landscape in an Eroded Field at the American University Museum of the Katzen Art Center, Washington DC, Kunstverein Paderborn, Lost Spaces, Goethe-Institut Washington DC, Cardboard City, Spartanburg Art Museum, (un)common space(s), San Jose Museum of Art CA, This End Up, National Trust’s Newark Park, Cheltenham Museum UK, and the Albright-Knox Gallery NY, Beyond Western New York. Selected solo exhibitions include McLean Projects for the Arts, Arlington Arts Center, King’s Gallery of Montgomery College, Delaplaine Arts Center, Artisphere, Noman’s Land, and Kunstverein Paderborn, Germany. Herber engaged in International Cultural Relations with NRW KULTURsekretariat. As Transatlantic Cultural Projects curator Herber created Micro-Monuments at the Salzlandmuseum, Germany, and Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, Washington DC, and Micro-Monuments II – Underground, International Arts&Artists at Hillyer, Washington DC. As former president of the Washington Sculptors Group she initiated concepts for Art in Nature and land-use projects. Since 2019 Artemis employs with the material culture program at the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, Washington DC. As the founder of the Mnemosyne-Initiative (2020), an international artists collaboration she engages in artistic practices of memory in times of pain, trauma, isolation in the material and virtual culture of the 21st Century. Her Mnemosyne-Initiative has been supported by the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University, Washington DC and is expanding though collaborations with philosophers Dr. Christoph Quarch, Germany, and Prof. Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos of Westminster University, London UK. Herber is a 2023 grantee awarded by the Maryland States Arts Council. Her current exhibition at Catalyst Contemporary together with Kei Ito and William S. Dutter presents “Sedimentary Time,” an examination of memory through charcoal. Herber is a prize recipient for The National Weather Biennale (Noman, OK) Best in Show Award winner and a Sondheim Semifinalist at MICA, First Prize Award by Maryland Federation of Art at MD Art@College Park MD, Paderborner Kunstpreis, Artist Award, Woldemar Winkler Award, and Dr. Sander-Wietfeld Promotion Award, Kunstverein Paderborn NRW, Germany. Since 2014 she has been granted Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Most recently she has been awarded as a member of the Platonic Academy_3 by philosopher Christoph Quarch. Her work has been featured in various publications such as Mapping Meaning Journal Issue #4, All SHE Makes, ZEST Hall, LandEscape Now!, Studio Visit Magazine, Art Ascent Art & Literature Journal, One Hundred Days by Contaminate, NYC and in an Artist Interview Series through the Linus Galleries LA, and many more.

ARTEMIS HERBER website View Website ARTEMIS HERBER website View Gallery

Artist's Statement

My work, whether painting or sculpture, is spatial in nature. I process corrugated cardboard, the ubiquitous signature for our globalized consumerism, into large-scale multilayered paintings. Through principles of disappearance, disintegrations, and reconstruction I share an underlying tale of environmental concerns embedded in tectonic activities that shape and change our landscapes over time and create a new human-made geological layer on top of all other strata. Relevant topics of time, land-use, and myths depict concepts of polit-myth, heterotopia, and experimental geography. Those are transformed into parables of human intervention and related metabolic regimes.  I combine the contemporary with myths that rise from the deep time, where memory has sedimented into geological layers and histories of exploitation from tectonic activities are stored. Aggregates, matter, and found materials, dissolved, and incorporated into tattered textures, the wall works reemerge as fragmented memory that coincides with experiences of trauma and pain of a dying world for all Earthbounders. Working with anthropocenic materials produced or exploited from geologies of deep time, I reflect on the passing and collapse of all living beings and nature.  With corrugated cardboard, a ubiquitous signature of our globalized consumerism and trade, I connect the material and conceptual infrastructure of the work: I recycle found cardboards and materials as expressions of our metabolic regimes. Through principles of disappearance and reconstruction, building and destroying, exposing layers of volatility and vulnerability, composing and decomposing, I share underlying tales of ancient myth or histories embedded into a new layer as a geological force transforming the planet. By juxtaposing paintings of distinct historic themes and their artifacts into a tapestry of the ephemeral and fleeting, I reveal a human condition that is at stake as well as our planet. My sculptures are open by nature. Single segments create safe, warm realms and remind us of our nature – pliable, easily formed, changeable thus becoming inclusive, exclusive, and interactive simultaneously. As groups, various dynamic relationships are being formed, and another with the viewer who walks through the room installation with surprise openings obtaining new perspectives of the sculptural settings. Known as the ‘Beige Gold’ I process cardboard in my paintings and sculptures; the ubiquitous signature for our globalized consumerism – now the market indicator of global consumerism and trade, into art by valuing the material and its transformation from artless into something artful. We refer to scrap paper, recycled into cardboard and shipped across the world transformed into a high valued material. I reflect on the value of meager materials, but also tells the underlying tale of industrial design concepts that denote great capital value. Under the focus of environmental concerns recycled materials can be valued as a means for sustainable practice that advocates for reuse and the concept of environmental limitations dictating future industrial smart design.

Featured Work

Photos

My STEMS are based on the idea of recreating huge trees destroyed by environmental disasters (storms, bug pests, etc.). I preserve and copy shapes of found stumps, reviving bygone trees through an installation that can be walked through. Inspired by nature, now open realms of corrugated cardboard, recyclable and sustainable, the original material of trees is integrated and transformed at the same time, encouraging visitors to wander through the installation contemplating memories of what was lost in real nature. My vision is to generate awareness of certain conditions I find in my environment. Tree stumps – signs of cumulative devastation in the region – are my motivation to recover and recreate natural forms as an artistic concept that delivers a message of the loss of nature. The bright, fresh green colors inspire a dreamlike stroll through a vivid, optimistic environment, artificial but without denying our nature – a walk between illusion and reality. I suggest a very abstract and minimalist installation of STEMS, a recycled woods/forest finding its way into the artistic sphere. With my project weather painting or installation, I am inspired by regional observations to create awareness in a global community. I create work based on local environmental impact that translates to ecological and societal issues worldwide. My work transcends economy and ecology, transforming life into art and meaning.
Wall Works Installation of "Gaia Rise" Cycle 2019-2020 American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center I propose polit-myth as an artistic strategy to seek a paradigm shift towards political decisions that are motivated by environmental concerns of climate change caused by human activity rooted in myths and histories. I process corrugated cardboard, the ubiquitous signature for our globalized consumerism, into multilayered paintings. Through principles of disappearance, disintegration, and abrasive operations, painterly actions of spilling, mopping, and raking, I share underlying tales and myth expressing environmental concerns engraved into the Anthropocene as a geological force transforming the planet.
Where is violence, there is always a trace. Where there is conflict, there is a memory that serves as a reference for resolution in the future. With the series of “Danger Zones,” I imagine our future self throughout past and present histories of human tectonic activities and their metabolic regimes. In the broader context of my recent series, I explore how myth and histories are revealed in the new human-made top stratum by examining how tectonic intervention, exploitation, and metabolic regimes have shaped land use and the environment. Looking into the past, I like the idea of understanding time being compressed in one artwork as it informs my presence here and now. Something that comes from the past not only emerges into the present but casts its shadows into the future - and vice versa. Single pieces of cardboard from Amazon, Walmart, or FedEx shipping boxes are montaged as tiled wall works. Integrated into the painterly process, traces of easily recognizable logos printed on the surface of the unfolded boxes are embedded in the landscape’s motive of the painting and reveal connections between the material and conceptual infrastructure of the work: I recycle found cardboard and materials as expressions of our metabolic regimes. Through principles of disappearance and reconstruction, building and destroying, exposing layers of volatility and vulnerability, composing and decomposing, I share underlying tales of narratives from the past embedded into a new layer of our presence as a geological force transforming the planet.
Where is violence, there is always a trace. Where there is conflict, there is a memory that serves as a reference for resolution in the future. With the series of “Danger Zones,” I imagine our future self throughout past and present histories of human tectonic activities and their metabolic regimes. In the broader context of my recent series, I explore how myth and histories are revealed in the new human-made top stratum by examining how tectonic intervention, exploitation, and metabolic regimes have shaped land use and the environment. Looking into the past, I like the idea of understanding time being compressed in one artwork as it informs my presence here and now. Something that comes from the past not only emerges into the present but casts its shadows into the future - and vice versa. Single pieces of cardboard from Amazon, Walmart, or FedEx shipping boxes are montaged as tiled wall works. Integrated into the painterly process, traces of easily recognizable logos printed on the surface of the unfolded boxes are embedded in the landscape’s motive of the painting and reveal connections between the material and conceptual infrastructure of the work: I recycle found cardboard and materials as expressions of our metabolic regimes. Through principles of disappearance and reconstruction, building and destroying, exposing layers of volatility and vulnerability, composing and decomposing, I share underlying tales of narratives from the past embedded into a new layer of our presence as a geological force transforming the planet.
Exhibition Sedimentary Time Catalyst Contemporary Gallery, Baltimore Mono-Pol-Lithic |Drawings from the Present Future The troubling effects and consequences of the pandemic have proven how fragile and vulnerable life on Earth is. My ongoing interest in the Anthropocene continues through a new body of work that is based on the theme of "Mono-pol-lithic": Monumental-Politics-Lithic. In this project, my continued interest in the Anthropocene questions human activities in the critical zone of our existence with ongoing natural resource exploitation. The Anthropocene era has transformed our planet's climate and ecosystem significantly. I focus on the relationships between time and acceleration. I am doing this by slowing down through my experimental drawing using charcoal, exploring the concept of Mono-Pol-Lithic. I seek to explore how political agencies have transformed and exhausted the land, as well as how societies and cultures have done the same via manifestations of architecture, enormous structures of power, and massive tectonic activities. My charcoal drawings unfold the moment of paralysis, adopting a traditional tool. Now re-engaging with charcoal, a mysterious, dark, and dusty material connects with my work's infrastructure forming raw, depleted, and dystopian environments. Charcoal, a material dug out from deep time, generates a massive geologic force into our presence as it was one of the first tools humans used to create artwork. My earlier painting series 'Erratic Landscapes,' 'Autochthon' Gaia Rise') depict myths montaged into a tapestry of devastated, neglected, or exploited landscapes. The most recent project, Gaia Rise, retells mythological themes animated by Mother Earth's close and far relatives, which have formed the base of Western culture, updating these classics into cautionary tales. Similarly, my charcoal drawings are an exploration into which I attempt to cast a shadow into the future.

Videos

  • Gaia Rise

    See more information about Gaia Rise
    I process corrugated cardboard, the ubiquitous signature for our globalized consumerism, into large-scale multilayered paintings. Through principles of disappearance, disintegration, and de-/collage, I share an underlying tale of environmental concerns embedded in a new Anthropocenic layer as a geological force transforming the planet.

    Ongoing changes of our biosphere creating scorched earth of extortion, exhaust, mining, monoculture, and neglect of Earth through economic driven political decisions. I propose polit-myth as an artistic strategy to seek a paradigm shift towards political decisions that are motivated by environmental concerns of climate change caused by human activity that are rooted in myths and histories.

    With a sense of urgency my large-scale paintings from recycled cardboard, combine artistic strategy, a deliberate use of selected materials (such as coal, marble, concrete, clays, dust), a metaphorical language that connects research and political status quo embedded into dys/utopian motives, with underlying myths concerning the current condition of Earth. This is to promote a directional change from the economies towards ecologies for critical political guidance. My work not only demands the viewer’s attention beyond vivid painterly brushstrokes and crusted surfaces of multiple layers through principles of disintegration and reconstruction, but also examines current politics with emerging intertwining themes and narratives from deep time. Contemporary societies are still affected by older mythological substrata that carry with them the sediments of to question ‘promethean’ narratives of human mastery.

    I extensively explore ancient myths and localities with the “Rise of Gaia”, a concept that is not just defined as a search for the cliché idea of loss of nature or the traditional but overcoming the idea of “caring mother earth.” Moreover, it gives access to a “critical zone” described by Bruno Latour in the Gifford Lectures (2013) of our living sphere. I investigated the experimental explorations to find Gaia not as a deity from deep times, but as entities that relate to our times of crisis where Earth, including all earth-bounders (human and non-humans), are at risk of an ongoing cataclysmic event of climate change and extinction.
    Medium: Acrylic on corrugated cardboard, mixed media, found objects
    Year: 2019-2020
    Details: each work 90x100" with variations

Booking

Booking Price: $500-$1,000

artemisherber@mac.com

Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, Frederick