Andrea Offermann 'Twentyfour Hours' Page 3, 2007, Pen, Ink and digital / Courtesy Andrea Offermann
The artist, designer and publicist Andrea Offermann loves to explore new ways to show her concepts, whether it be painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic novel, or film. Depending on the underlying idea of the work, she uses what will show her concept best, and disregards the clichés connected to that medium. This gives her the freedom to express herself in new ways continuously.
In her new work for the group show "Systema Naturae II - submerged" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra (10 minutes east ofdowntown Los Angeles), California, Andrea Offermann took her concept for this show, mainly focusing on pseudo-scientific evolution theories, a step further in experimenting with ways to put motion into the lifecycles she described. The cycle from fish to human to tree back to fish, painted in "Utopia", left her wanting to show this cycle in motion, experimenting with new ways to display her work. A revolving lantern led to experiments with flipbooks, which eventually transformed into a short motion piece projected onto one of the gallery walls during the show.
Andrea Offermann graduated Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 2005 with a BFA in illustration. During her studies she started to focus on fine art and printmaking, taking classes at Art Center as well as Il Bisonte printmaking school in Florence, Italy, to master technique and aesthetic content. After a year of working in the US in Fine Arts and illustration she returned to Germany in 2006.
Since her return to Germany she has worked in several different areas of illustration, diving into new fields like graphic novels and children's book illustration, all the time remaining faithful to fine art and showing in different galleries throughout the US.
Her work focuses on the tension between nature and manmade scientific (sur)realities. In her images, often nature will push up against large fantastic cityscapes, exploring the dialogue between the human mind and the world around it. Perhaps influenced through a short time as a medical student, pseudo-scientific content can often be found in her images. The world of scientific research continues to fascinate her, in combination with a continuous interest in the creative power of the human mind, and its' need to put order into an overwhelming and often yet misunderstood world.
In her fine art, Andrea Offermann loves to work with material that "gives back", putting a certain order or pattern as a base for the images. Often her paintings on wood leave the grain to show through and offer an underlying concept for the images she draws on top. Thus, the pattern nature created influences the idea and scientific content she will lay out within it. Ink drawing and oil glazes allow this underlying woodgrain pattern to remain a strong part of the final image, while giving it a definite form, thus showing how the human mind always seeks to put order into what it observes and edit down the content to an understandable truth.
Transformation plays a big part in Andrea Offermann's work. In "Orchids", 2005, she explored the link the human mind made between the shape of orchid roots and human reproduction organs, leading to the belief that orchids could "heal" impotence. In "Twentyfour hours", 2007, her first short "graphic novel", Andrea Offermann created a 22-page story about a city that destroys itself to redefine life on a new planet.
Andrea Offermann also works as a freelance journalist for creative face MAGAZINE. In L.A. she met exciting artists, curators and gallerists.