Differenz - Exhbition and Market by Staffel Verlag

“Differenz” brings together publications produced in recent years by the ‘Staffel’ publishing house for collaborative original graphics: portfolios and books in which artistic styles and generations mix, and works that could not have been created in any single studio. For the “Staffel” projects, all invited artists contribute one of their own drawings. These drawings are then raffled off within the group and given to another person for reworking and translation. In this way, different styles and authorships mix in one image, positions and media rub against each other, and points of view that would otherwise have remained separate in the studio encounter each other. This does not mean a rejection of individual style: rather, it is a prerequisite for artistic encounter. 
The unfamiliar sketch does not materialize on the plate by itself: initially new and unknown, it gradually introduces itself, perhaps entering into dialogue with the artist's own works in the studio, demanding ever deeper empathy with the unfamiliar position. The peculiarities of graphic technique are often far removed from the style of drawing. But what is the core of the design, what must be retained, what can be translated, and where does the graphic artist's own style creep in?

The exhibition brings together portfolios and books from the last two years. The new portfolio “Treppenhaus” (Stairwell) is being presented for the first time, again featuring both student and established positions from Leipzig, Halle, Berlin, Darmstadt, and Salzburg, and a wide range of different printmaking techniques: woodcut and linocut, etching, lithography, and hand typesetting.

“Stairwell” contains prints by Juana Anzellini, Jared Cooper Cobain, Franziska Dathe, Niklas Dietzel, Helene Eisl, Fedele Friede, Leon Friederichs, Sebastian Gögel, Kristina Hajduchova, Max Hechinger, Antonia Heinze, Arina Heinze, Ida Lovis Hüsing, Esther Janott, Miriam Jehle, Maximilian Koch, Mathilda Köhler, Gustav Körnig, Nathalie Lange, Jonas Liesaus, Leon von der Lippe, Felix Lorenz, Robert Schmiedel, Marla Vita, Maria Claudia Wagner, Gemma Wilson, Paul Wilting, Louis Wuttke, as well as a text by Michèle Yves Pauty.