Caves and Volcanoes

Although the lives of artists Uwe Henneken and Jakob Steen crossed paths relatively late, they felt an immediate long-time connection. May it be the Mallorquin sun that shone on their first encounter in 2018, a spark was ignited that led to a constant flow of mutual inspiration ever since.

Mutual visits and joint painting and working in Berlin and Denmark finally led to the idea of a first joint exhibition which can now be seen under the title Caves and Volcanoes in the BARK BERLIN GALLERY.

While each artists works originate from different approaches, they share the same intention.
Hennekens latest series of what he calls “Cave Paintings” began after his last visit to Steen in September 2021. He has long thematized transformation and transition, passages and thresholds in his work. The cave as a place of retreat, of contact with the unconscious, the subconscious, the underworld, but probably also as the first place of conscious artistic expression of man beyond mere design. A place that allows outlooks and insights. "In the cave we face ourselves," as Werner Herzog aptly puts it in his film "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams."

Steens paintings in Caves and Volcanoes are materialized within an echo of the two artists meetings over the past years, where he feels the common ground, the two artists share, is like a cave itself. 
In his work he often meditates upon the glory of an idea where nothing yet exists in the physical realm and anything is still possible. Here the state of stillness and eruption are pulled together by magnetic force and rub against each other creating repeating friction in Jakob Steen’s work. 

Uwe Henneken, 2021