Less is more

In any form of art, from the plating of fine, gourmet cuisine to the styling of a high fashion photograph, space is one of the critical elements. I find empty spaces in particular, open rooms and empty warehouses to be quite striking and beautiful in a stark way. In an increasingly chaotic world many people feel senselessly pressured to fill every void and crevasse with objects, yet elegance often comes in the welcome form of simplicity. In contrast to the nearly infinite vastness of the world around us, homes and offices are oppressively small. The more useless clutter that a space is burdened with, the more uncomfortable it will be to live and work in.

I find myself in the heart of Miami, photographing Galerie Schuster Miami and its owner, Helmut Schuster. Helmut Schuster owns one of Berlin’s largest galleries, Galerie Schuster Berlin, founded in 1989 – the very year that the Berlin Wall was torn down. Following the destruction of the wall, the art scene of a reunited Germany came to life with a new fervor and since then, Galerie Schuster has been one of the power-players in the art world, helping to launch the careers of many emerging artists. With Art Basel Miami Beach barely two weeks away, Galerie Schuster Miami has just opened it’s doors to prepare for the onslaught of the thousands of eager art buyers that are just beginning to arive.

Located in the vibrant Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Galerie Schuster is located in a massive converted warehouse. The new gallery truly puts the concept of negative space to work, channeling the philosophy of the pioneering master of modern architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe who is well known for his aphorism, “Less is more.”

The spacious exhibition features primarily the large scale works of painter Jens Hausmann. Born in 1964, Hausmann’s oil on canvas work is simply gorgeous. Making heavy use of architectural, spacial, and landscape elements, the paintings depict one or more persons – their identities often obscured by anonymizing circles or shown from afar, dwarfed by the scale of their surroundings.

The painting pictured above is undoubtedly my favorite in the exhibition. Titled “Gedenkstätte” and completed in 2008, it is priced at $8,500. Measuring 78.7″ x  55.1″ it is definitely a painting that commands attention, yet does not scream for it. It is large, yet subtle – painted with a soft palette that is easy on the eyes, yet compelling.

It was incredibly difficult to settle upon color or black & white for my portrait of Helmut Schuster, pictured above. The incredibly vivid cerulean blue of his eyes won the case for me. Unfortunately, no photo of my garb today, but this striking portrait more than makes up for its absence.