Silke Otto-Knapp's first solo museum exhibition in the United States showcases her watercolor paintings capturing the transient nature of dance

Berkeley, CA, August 24, 2011-(Download a PDF version of this press release.)The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) presents Silke Otto-Knapp: A light in the moon / MATRIX 239, the London-based German artist's first solo museum show in the United States. The exhibition highlights Otto-Knapp's watercolor paintings, which focus on the visibility of motion in the pictorial frame.

For the past several years, Otto-Knapp has been investigating the possibilities inherent in watercolor: repeatedly washing down her images and reworking them layer by layer to create images of great translucency and delicacy. Inspired by the choreography of Bronislava Nijinska, George Balanchine, and American avant-garde dancer Yvonne Rainer, her unusual technique creates translucent ethereal surfaces, capturing the transient nature of dance. The effect, which art critic Jan Verwoert refers to as the “threshold moments of motions,” perfectly complements the beauty of choreographed movement. Her application of silver pigment serves to echo the shiny seduction of Pop materiality and to veil, or curtain, the represented image. Appropriating famous photographs from contemporary choreography, she stages them within, and behind, this ethereal pigment.

Otto-Knapp will be at the Museum for a special exhibition opening/L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA performance on Friday, September 30. In addition to a Q & A with the artist, the evening will feature stage videos from the PFA collection and dance performances by Linda K. Johnson and Flora Wiegmann.

About the Artist
Born in 1970 in Osnabrück, Germany, Silke Otto-Knapp has been based in London since 1995. She has had solo exhibitions at Sadler's Wells, London; Kunstverein Munich; Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff; Modern Art Oxford; Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna; and the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. She has recently participated in group exhibitions at the Tate Britain, London; Wiels, Brussels; The Artist's Institute, New York; Hessel Museum of Art, New York; Kunsthall, Oslo; Castillo/Coralles, Paris; Migros Museum, Zurich; and the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven. She was also included in the British Art Show 6 at the BALTIC Centre, Gateshead, and the 9th International Istanbul Biennial, both in 2005. She holds a degree in cultural studies from the University of Hildesheim and a master of arts from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London.

Exhibition Opening / L@TE: MATRIX Live
Friday, September 30
Admission is free.
MATRIX moves out of Gallery 1 with a L@TE program that brings the paintings of Silke Otto-Knapp to life. Programmed by Dena Beard.

5:30 Rare dance footage from the PFA collection: Anna Halprin's Parades and Changes performed at the opening of BAM/PFA, 1970
Yvonne Rainer performs and teaches Dance Fractions for the West Coast to Mills College students, 1969

7:00 Q&A with Silke Otto-Knapp

7:30 Dance performances: Three variations on Yvonne Rainer's Trio A danced by Linda K. Johnson and a special site-specific performance by choreographer Flora Wiegmann.

For more information about the exhibition and special programs visit: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/239

Support
Exhibition conceived by Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator Elizabeth Thomas. The MATRIX Program at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is made possible by a generous endowment gift from Phyllis C. Wattis; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees.

About BAM/PFA
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is the visual arts center of the University of California, Berkeley, one of the nation's leading research universities. BAM/PFA aims to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through contemporary and historical art and film, engaging audiences from the campus, Bay Area community, and beyond. One of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, BAM/PFA presents fifteen art exhibitions and 380 film programs each year. The museum's collection of more than 16,000 works, distinguished by artistic excellence and innovation, intellectual exploration, and social commentary, includes exceptional examples of mid-twentieth-century painting, including important works by Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse, and Mark Rothko, as well as historical and contemporary Asian art, early American painting, Conceptual and contemporary international art, and California and Bay Area art. The PFA film and video collection now includes the largest group of Japanese films outside of Japan, as well as impressive holdings of Soviet silents, West Coast avant-garde cinema, seminal video art, rare animation, Central Asian productions, Eastern European cinema, and international classics.

Museum Information
Location: 2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue near the UC Berkeley campus.

Gallery and Museum Store Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 11–5. Open L@TE Fridays until 9 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Admission: General admission is $10; admission for seniors, disabled persons, non–UC Berkeley students, and young adults (13–17) is $7; admission for BAM/PFA members, UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty, and children under 12 is free. Reservations are required for group visits; for information, rates, and schedule, please e-mail sgvisits@berkeley.edu. Admission is free on the first Thursday of each month.

L@TE Admission: On L@TE Fridays, general admission to the BAM/PFA galleries is typically $7 after 5 p.m. Show your ticket for a same-day PFA screening or gallery visit and get in free. Admission is always free for BAM/PFA members and UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff. For updates on L@TE programs and to purchase tickets, visit bampfa.berkeley.edu/late.

Information: 24-hour recorded message (510) 642-0808; fax (510) 642-4889; TDD (510) 642-8734.

Website: bampfa.berkeley.edu

For a selection of media images, please contact Peter Cavagnaro at (510) 642-0365 or pcavagnaro@berkeley.edu.

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