Two Lines Meet by Friederike Maltz and Anna Sykora

Artist list

Friederike Maltz, Anna Sykora

Both live in Berlin, both are winners of the Bavarian State Prize and have been members of the Bavarian Arts and Crafts Association for many years: Friederike Maltz and Anna Sykora are connected not only by their friendship but also by an exciting coexistence of their work. They search, doubt, experiment - and each creates completely independent objects, situated between art and craft, and always with reference to design. The commonality of their 'lines' is not only exhausted in the graceful decor of the wonderful ceramic works by Anna Sykora or the delicate structures made of steel wire from the studio of Friederike Maltz, but they also continue in the perfection of each of their unusual techniques and in their basic attitude to design. A dialogue worth seeing with the most diverse objects and techniques.


Friederike Maltz: Jewellery, spatial structures, cutlery
Goldsmith and silversmith, Friederike Maltz was born in Selb. Her important career stages include an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, attendance at the Staatliche Zeichenakademie Hanau, a scholarship in Padua, studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nuremberg with a diploma and further scholarships. Numerous exhibitions and awards accompany her path. Her work includes the spatial structures already mentioned, formed from steel wire of various kinds. She uses them to create delicate geometric sculptures that seem to float in space. Surfaces that shift against each other, rhythmic systems that are always perceived differently depending on their location. Of course, jewellery is also created in the goldsmith's studio, made of stainless steel or iron, for example. Often they are rings that follow the law of the line and perform an only supposedly chaotic movement in space. And last but not least, she dedicates herself to the subject of cutlery: it is not about the perfection of the form, but rather about twists or shifts of the line that directly change or even abstract the respective object - despite all its functionality.


Anna Sykora: Sensory perception of vessels
Sykora was born in Bad Frankenhausen. She completed her training in the industry and in traditional pottery in Brandenburg, and her apprenticeship in Germany and England. She passed her master's examination at the Technical College for Ceramic Design in Höhr-Grenzhausen. Since 1992 she has been working in her own workshop in Berlin. "I want us to cultivate a personal relationship with the things we surround ourselves with," says the ceramicist, who is convinced that, in addition to a high standard of design, the sensual perception of her vessels is of great importance. That is why they are not cast in moulds, as is usually the case, but turned by hand on the potter's wheel. Each piece of the small series is a little different from the other. "Terra Sigillata", the technical term for their decorative technique, gives the surface a special beauty and expressiveness. These are vessels that one not only looks at in admiration but enjoys holding in one's hand.


Opening with Friederike Maltz and Anna Sykora: Friday, 21. October 2022,16-18.00h