Johanssen Gallery, Berlin : Martin Haake - The Return of the Doodle

Berlin’s Johanssen Gallery presents a solo exhibition by illustrator Martin Haake. In his series “The Return of the Doodle“, Martin Haake enlightens this style of sketch to an artistic style and manages to create a surreal, parallel universe flooded with comments on pop culture, yellow press and daily soaps.

Martin Haake’s work delves into a huge archive. From a newspaper note, to a photo novella and a telephone doodle, to a boulevard magazine from the 50s or old school charts, the Oldenburg-born artist will use anything that gets in his hands and promises to be fun.

Very British, yet also inspired by Art Brut artists such as Adolf Wölfli, Dadaism and Folk Art by Nellie Mae Rowe. Figures and objects are deconstructed, dressed up and arranged in new constellations of space and sense. A humorous slant is a definite characteristic of his work method.

The gallery represents artists that experiment on the borders of art and design. It specialises in contemporary graphics, illustration, sculpture, animation and book art. Pascal Johanssen is also the founder and curator of Illustrative, which presents an international selection of the best work a younger generation of illustrators has to offer.

Martin Haake - The Return of the Doodle
4 July - 30 August 2008
Galerie Johanssen
Gormannstr. 23, 10119 Berlin
www.johanssen-gallery.com