A FRANK CHAT WITH REGINE SCHUMANN

During a recent trip to Marbella, we stumbled across german light artist Regine Schumann's exhibition Power of Color. Her captivating use of light and vibrant hues caught our attention, and we were eager to learn more about her journey and artistic vision.

Hi Regine! Could you start by sharing a bit about your background and journey as an artist?
I was born in 1961 and grew up in a small medieval town called Goslar. My father's family came from a long-established family of miners, my mother came from a farming family who had fled from Stettin to Goslar at the end of the Second World War. My father died early after a long illness, a difficult time for me, during which I completed a commercial apprenticeship and tried to find my bearings. I moved to Hanover on my own, completed my vocational baccalaureate with the desire to study art afterwards and from 1982-89 I finally studied fine art at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig.

After graduating as a master student of Roland Dörfler, I traveled to Rome in 1989 thanks to a scholarship and lived and worked there for a year. In 1990 I moved to Cologne, the birthplace of my future husband Carmin Adinolfi, where I still live today. My husband was an architect and town planner, and together we converted and extended several factory spaces in the Rhineland in the 1990s, exchanging ideas with young Cologne artists while I continued to develop my artistic position. In 1997 our son Dario Raphael and in 2001 Florentin Emanuel were born and unfortunately I lost my husband in 2008. Thankfully, by this time I had already established good contacts with galleries and had my first exhibitions and successes on the art market, so I was able to support myself and my sons as a single parent.

An important step in overcoming this new personal stroke of fate was certainly the fact that I implemented conversion plans that my husband had drawn up shortly before his death for our light-flooded home and studio. This required courage in my situation at the time and at the same time it made me and us brave. Today, our children are 27 and 23 years old, Dario has been running his own restaurant in Cologne for 3 years and Florentin is studying architecture in Vienna. Thanks to the galleries I work with today, I now have an international presence and consider myself lucky to be able to present my work worldwide. My new life partner Cüneyt Aribas supports me in my artistic projects and we now work together as an artist couple.

colormirror soft fluo yellow glowing after milan, 2 parts, 2024
acrylglas fluoreszierend und nachleuchtend
196 x 195 x 12 cm / 77 1/8 x 76 3/4 x 4 3/4 in

What initially drew you to the world of art?
Even as a child, I was fascinated by the world of art and felt how it made me happy. I could look at pictures for hours and immerse myself in them. I lived in a distinct fantasy world, and from an early age I dreamed of leaving the small town of Goslar and getting to know the world with all its different people and works of art.

How would you define your style of work?
I plan my works, exhibitions and commissions conceptually. At first, I often react very intuitively and spontaneously and see the new works and spaces in my mind's eye, as I did as a child. In the design phase, I draw them, make spray color works on paper and work on the architectural and 3D drawings with my collaborator Jukka Höhe. The works are created on the basis of these drawings and the exhibitions are hung exactly according to them. My long-time colleague Angelina Enderlein is in constant contact with all the galleries and takes care of the organization and smooth processes.

What led you to focus on fluorescent materials in your work?
Under the blue Roman sky with its wonderful clear light and the colors of nature and the architecture of the city, I experienced very clearly in my scholarship year 1990/91 how closely color and light are related. As it was not possible for me to adequately transfer this eventful glow onto paper or canvas, I looked for new materials with which I could realize my ideas - and I found acrylic glass, transparent, colourful and luminous. Fluorescent colors and the fluorescent acrylic glass are very special in this respect because they can glow on their own. I still work with this material today, always looking for something new, with the aim of finding and inventing new surfaces, colors and/or shapes for my works of art.

colormirror orange glowing after cologne, 2023
acrylglas fluoreszierend und nachleuchtend
120 x 100 x 10 cm / 47 1/4 x 39 3/8 x 3 7/8 in

The "Lightcatcher" series is a significant part of your portfolio. Could you tell us about the inspiration behind these installations and the process of bringing them to life?
lightcatcher from 2017, is the title of a sculptural installation that is now part of the collection of Belgian architects Benny Govaert and Damiaan Vanhoutte. It is a very delicately colored and reflective work, the viewer's attention is drawn to the 4 transparent cubes and their luminous edges. It was important to me to create a very delicate, almost fragile-looking group of sculptures which, despite their delicacy, have a great magical power and dimension in space. Following Goethe's theory of color, 6 differently colored acrylic glass panes were assembled into pedestal-less colored bodies that radiate into the room. The individual cubes are each 160 cm high, 90 cm wide and 50 cm deep; they are arranged in the room in such a way that the viewer can move between them. Black light is used as a varying medium in my installations. In all my installations, my declared aim is to expand the existing architecture by adding a dimension of vibration and - as I once called it - the creation of "room temperatures". lightcatcher translates thinking into colors and color spaces, into a plasticity that can be experienced spatially. The material of the colored and fluorescent acrylic glass plays an enormously important role here. The material I use glows as soon as it is supplied with light energy, be it in the form of natural daylight or artificial light. Depending on the location, the differently colored panels result in a process of shining through, layering, mixing and selecting. It is these difficult-to-name, constantly changing effects of light that I address in my installations and works.

lightcatcher, 4 parts (part a and b: black and orange bottom), 2017
Acrylglas, fluoreszierend
160 x 90 x 50 cm / 63 x 35 3/8 x 19 5/8 in

How has living and working in Cologne impacted your artistic practice, and what is your view on the local art scene?
I immediately felt at home in this cosmopolitan city Cologne and lived with other artists and architects in the early 90s. Many international galleries and museums were on site and showed exciting artists - in the 90s as well as today. The numerous contemporary art galleries and artist-run exhibition spaces brought international renown. The favorable geographical location, close to Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam, was not only to my liking. And, of course, the Art Cologne art fair has ensured a globally important position in the art world, having started back in the 1960s and becoming an important economic factor and driving force for art worldwide in the 1980s and 1990s. The vibrant art scene continues to move in a nomadic way, and today, in the age of digital networking, the heart of the art scene is certainly beating elsewhere and more outside Germany. But I have created a living and working space for myself in Cologne where I feel free and comfortable and where I can find and realize my energy for new projects.

You've received several awards and realized public projects for significant institutions. How does working on public projects differ from creating gallery installations?
Public projects are decided by a jury on the basis of a design before realization. In the planning phase, the project is formulated down to the smallest detail using models and sketches and accompanying texts; there are often variants that are discussed and decided on in committees and are frequently reformulated during the process until a design is finalized. In the case of installations in galleries or the planning of exhibitions, the process from planning to installation is often more intuitive. If I create new works of art that are not yet intended for a specific project or a specific space, that are intended for o space which only exists in my head, they remain invisible until they are realized and presented; even works that I design for a very specific space or a gallery exhibition retain and preserve a greater element of surprise – in this way even for me.

colormirror rainbow and glowing after calgary, 9 parts, 2024
acrylglas fluoreszierend und nachleuchtend
140 x 8,5 x 7,5 cm / 55 1/8 x 3 3/8 x 3 in

What do you hope your artistic legacy will be?
Surely a dream of all artists: that my works of art will outlive me, remain important for future generations and continue to provide new impulses and ideas. Every time, every epoch has its tasks, ways of looking at things and dreams. But the chameleon-like transformation of my light art, the central theme of my works, is intended to promote the sensitivity of the human senses in order to sharpen and sensitize the eye. To always look at things or events closely and never to dispense with a change of perspective are timeless goals. The clear, open aesthetic beauty, combined with perfect craftsmanship, which I want to convey in my works, opposes the destructive tendencies of current political powers. My art not only reflects the surrounding space and the viewer, but also my view of the world. I experience art as I experienced the world of art as a child: Art opens the mind, art heals - and I see it as my task to activate precisely these positive forces, now and gladly also in the future.

Photos by Eberhard Weible and Fabio Mantegna by Dep Art Milan.