Artist Residency New York City

March till July New York City, April till June 2024 Artist Residency at Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, New York City,

SPACE TAPE NO 1, Excerpt, Studio view Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NYC, Totale Size: 180x220x180x210cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer SPACE TAPE NO 1, Excerpt, Studio view Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NYC, Totale Size: 180x220x180x210cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer



From March till July 2024 I stayed in New York City. From April till June 2024 I had an Artist Residency at Kunstraum LLC in Brooklyn, New York City. I decided not to take any artistic work or material from Switzerland to NYC. I decided to focus on drawing and to find as well new approaches in my installation researches, with the starting point of NYC as my ‘Open Studio’. The material to work with, I found in NYC. These are ‘coffee sleeves’ and colored adhesive tape.

The materials, the resulting working methods and the visual approaches in the artistic works are spaces for reflection on my experiences. These are figurative, abstract, surrealistic-naive drawings on the ‘coffee sleeves’, THE CITY NO 1, THE CITY NO 2, and abstract, conceptual-minimalistic tape dawings on cardboard, TAPE NO 1 - 10 (work in progress) that finally are integrated into a space-specific room-wall drawing with tape in my studio place at Kunstraum LLC, SPACE TAPE NO 1//1 (20 Grand Av, Loft 402, Brooklyn, NY 11205), including TAPE NO 1-5; SPACE TAPE NO 2//1 (Grand Av, Loft 402, Brooklyn, NY 11205), including TAPE NO 6-10. 

The materiality and the different visual languages of the works allow us to experience NYC in two very different ways in immersive, abstract pictorial realities that burst the pictorial space in an individual way - realities that are constantly withdrawing in order to immediately form themselves into new ones, and which disintegrate again as they are created. It is a constant flow and glide. Perception as a dynamic creative process and the questioning of the continuously changing realities is therefore essential.

THE CITY NO 1

2024, Drawing, ink pen on 40 coffee cup sleeves;                         ca. 134 cm x 50.3 cm

The coffee sleeves are a product that, once used, is already waste and thrown away. They are made of light, brownish cardboard with a grid-like embossing. When opened and unfolded at the gluing point, they have a wave-like shape. The individual elements can be put together to form a larger picture carrier. These material qualities interest me because they generate additional irritations and coincidences that flow into the development process of the drawing.


THE CITY NO 1, Excerpt, 2024, ink pen on 40 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 134 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer THE CITY NO 1, Excerpt, 2024, ink pen on 40 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 134 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer


THE CITY NO 1, 2024, ink pen on 40 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 134 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer THE CITY NO 1, 2024, ink pen on 40 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 134 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer


THE CITY NO 2
2024, Drawing, ink pen on 42 coffee cup sleeves, ca. 141 cm x 50.5 cm

This second abstract, naïve-surrealistic drawing presents a combination of cityscapes reminiscent of Manhatten’s skyscrapers and the gardens and houses in Brooklyn’s neighbourhood. The multi-perspective is unusually, the contrasts, patterns and shapes of the various pictorial elements evoke an immersive, illusionistic, three-dimensional, abstract pictorial space. Additional irritations are evoked through the grid-like embossing and the gaps between the assembled coffee sleeves. The strong presence of the drawing, its size, the small and large pictorial elements invite the viewer to walk along the picture, to look from close up and from a distance. The recipients become part of the work, creating an individual experience of the physical as a whole.

THE CITY NO 2, 2024, Excerpt, ink pen on 42 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 141 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer THE CITY NO 2, Excerpt, 2024, ink pen on 42 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 141 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer


THE CITY NO 2, 2024, ink pen on 42 coffee sleeves, Totale Size: 141 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer


 THE CITY NO 3
2024, Drawing, ink pen on 40 coffee cup sleeves, ca. 134 cm x 50.5 cm

This third abstract, naïve-surrealistic drawing presents a combination of cityscapes reminiscent of Manhatten’s skyscrapers and the gardens and houses in Brooklyn’s neighbourhood with a lot of little, tiny details of the daily discoveries like for example the standpipes or the mail boxes that have become over the years and decades very special street personalities. 

THE CITY NO 3, 2024, ink pen on 40 coffee cup sleeves, Totale Size: 134 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer THE CITY NO 3, 2024, ink pen on 40 coffee cup sleeves, Totale Size: 134 x 50,5 cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer





SPACE TAPE NO 1//1, 20 Grand Av, Loft 402, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Room specific Wall and Floor Drawing / Installation with colored tape in combination with single colored Tape works No 1-5 on cardboard.
2024, 180 cm x 220 cm x180 cm x 210 cm, Form, Size space specific variable
Studio view at Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NYC, USA; Fotos: Stella Pfeiffer

My main medium is drawing. Since a few years I have been exploring drawing in large-scale, site-specific installations and object installations as a sign, text and body in space. Conceptual Art, Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Naive Art influence my visual languages. They enable me to illuminate aspects of perception, the focus in my artistic research, in different ways.

Space Tape No 1 is an extension of my previous, minimalist-conceptual installations. Usually working with black and white, I expanded to a multicolored spectrum with adhesive tapes, as far as it is possibly with the tapes, I find in hardware stores. No sketches or studies are done for this drawing. The concept is the idea itself and the development of an individual, room-specific work is a spontaneous, associative experimentation and exploration of the possibilities.
The images show different excerpts of a wall - floor drawing with blue and green tape. The overlapping of the lines of different widths creates multiple perspectives that form many different, immersive visual spaces.

Five individual, small-format adhesive tape works are integrated into the spatial drawing which extends over three walls and the floor of the Studio. They act like windows that expand the space into new worlds. The pictorial elements contrast with each other just as much as they support each other. When viewers step into the installation, they are immediately enveloped by the diverse spaces in an intense way. This makes the experience very physical.

This installation is ephemeral. It can be realized in a new way, size, form and colors, in any other room. Depending on the room conditions, the ceiling can also be included and additional individual works can be integrated.


SPACE TAPE NO 1, Excerpt, Studio view Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NYC, Totale Size: 180x220x180x210cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer SPACE TAPE NO 1, Excerpt, Studio view Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NYC, Totale Size: 180x220x180x210cm; Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer



TAPES (work in progress)
Tape No1, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard,  approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 2, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 3, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 4, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 5, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm

Tape No6, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 7, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 8, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 9, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 cm
Tape No 10, 2024, drawing, adhesive tape on cardboard, approx. 50 x 38 c

Until now I have mainly worked with black and white. In the TAPES series, I have expanded the colour spectrum to multicoloured tapes as far as it is possibly with the tapes I find in hardware stores. This cheap material has a trashy character that is enhanced by the brilliance of the colour side. High and Low contrasts between trash and high-gloss surface. As with all the other works, there are no sketches or studies for these single tape works either. The concept is the idea itself and the development of the individual works is a spontaneous, associative experimentation and exploration of the possibilities.

I understand the TAPES as drawings of colourful, layered lines that create abstract colourfull spaces with a three-dimensional illusion and which develop a proximity to painting. The layering of the tapes leads to additional edges and nuances of the colours. In some cases, the tapes are layered so densely that three-dimensional forms are created which, together with the colour contrasts, intensify the spatial depth. These architectures are in constant motion, the gaze wanders and glides back and forth. Spaces emerge and dissolve again, the pictorial space is once again expanded. The structure of lines is sometimes so dense that they can challenge and overtax visual boundaries.

TAPE NO 1, 2024, Drawing, colored adhesive tape on cardboard, 28 cm x 50,3 cm, Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer TAPE NO 1, 2024, Drawing, colored adhesive tape on cardboard, 28 cm x 50,3 cm, Foto: Stella Pfeiffer, ©Stella Pfeiffer



SPACE TAPE NO 2//1, 20 Grand Av, Loft 402, Brooklyn, NY 11205

Room specific Wall and Floor Drawing / Installation with colored tape in combination with single colored Tape works No 1-5 on cardboard.
2024, 180 cm x 220 cm x180 cm x 210 cm, Form, Size space specific variable
Studio view at Kunstraum LLC, Brooklyn, NYC, USA; 
Fotos: Stella Pfeiffer


 Interview cultbytes.com: Grid and Gestures: Stella Pfeiffer in Her New York Studio