Römer + Römer


Römer + Römer are a German-Russian artist couple living and working in Berlin, Germany.

Biography

Torsten Römer was born 1968 in Aachen, Germany. Nina Römer, née Tangian, 1978 in Moscow, Russia. Both studied painting at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under A. R. Penck and both were his "Meisterschüler". Nina Römer is the granddaughter of the Soviet-era writer Yury Trifonov and the great-granddaughter of the Ukrainian-Russian-Soviet painter Amshey Nurenberg. 1996 Torsten Römer received a travel grant from the Kunstverein Düsseldorf. In 2011 they were bestowed with the special award of the Lucas Cranach Prize of the City of Kronach, Germany. Nina and Torsten have been collaborating since 1998.

Works

Römer + Römer create paintings and drawings mostly based on their own photography, make performances, and curate shows.. In 1998 they commenced their long-term art project “M°A°I°S”. Their works often incorporate historical and political references: 2005 the Berlin show “Der freie Wille” was part of the jubilee events for 20 years of “Glasnost”. And 2004 “HA KYROPT – Russische Kunst heute” in Baden-Baden related to the city's close ties with Russians spa-guests since the times of the Tsar. In such projects Römer + Römer provide an aesthetic reconstruction of historical and political situations. Their motifs are mostly festivities, pageants, parties, and social and political events.. In a 2013/14 series they covered the carnival in Brasil. Technically Römer + Römer set out from self-taken photographs which are subjected to image processing, the computer taking the traditional role of the sketchbook. The pictorial idea finds its artistic form in paintings showing a pixel-structure. The pixels, however, are different from digital pixels as they possess inner structures. This way Römer + Römer's art is related to Pointillism, and one may also see references to stipple engraving. The motifs are distributed over planes of colour and fragmented into thousands of painted dots, which, seen from a certain distance, merge in the eye of the beholder to form a focussed image. The closer one comes to the canvas, the more the figures and objects dissolve into an abstract and dynamic interplay of colours. Their latest large series treats the "Burning Man" festival in the Nevada desert. Light from fires and LED-installations, art cars, freak temporary artworks, "burns", and parties for, the subject core of a recognisable painterly aesthetic.

Exhibitions (selection)

Art Project M°A°I°S