Monika Michalko and Christoph Blawert at Galerie Feinkunst Krüger

Galerie Feinkunst Krüger, a tiny gallery in Hamburg's Portuguese quarter, is both public and private—the back door leads into owner Ralf Krüger's kitchen. Since 1998, Krüger has lived there and shown young artists fresh from the Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition 'Here a Hello and There a Small Haircut' features two 2009 graduates of the HFBK (Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg): Monika Michalko and Christoph Blawert. They form a 'small artistic collective' and occupy the space inventively, integrating their paintings into the room's layout. Colored curtains, painted floors and walls blur the line between artworks and their presentation. Small-format drawings and paintings, childlike in freshness and naivety, fill the space with abstract forms. A film loops in one corner, 'Dance with Me – Fräulein Labil & Mr Instabil.' On the other side, a bed with a sleeping blonde and a surreal wardrobe add confusion. Michalko's paintings stand out, evoking pennants, flags, garlands, garden parties, or amusement parks. A student of painter Norbert Schwontkowski, she creates personal spaces with juxtaposed surfaces, tangles of triangles, circles, lines, and bands. Sometimes she opts for naive figuration. Her titles are original: 'Être silencieux et manger lentement des cerises,' 'Funicolare,' 'Oncle Milan,' 'Forêt rouge,' 'Dimanche belle fleur noire,' 'Un cheval ne mange pas de salade de concombre.' A visual and poetic pleasure.