Ines A. Landmesser
The art created by German born artist Ines A. Landmesser is a visual tribute to her dedication and willingness to take the subject of painting and sculpture seriously. Ines leaves no stone unturned when it comes to finding ways in which to express her ideas and thoughts about the world. Painting fluently in the language of oils, pastels and mixed media, Ines is not content with two dimensional forms alone and so she builds up her work into three dimensions with a series of ceramic pieces and hand built pottery sculptures all of which are interlinked by observations and narratives related to the world in which we live.

Ines has lived abroad since 1981 and much of that time has been spent in Abu Dhabi where she draws on the day to day life of the Emirate for inspiration. Ines describes Abu Dhabi as ‘a place where I have found freedom to work on my painting, a good working environment and atmosphere in which to create.’ As a result, Ines’s first solo exhibition at the Cultural Foundation in 1999 was a great success. It was at this point, having spent time teaching pottery and being involved in various voluntary activities that Ines decided to take time out to concentrate on her own work, develop her painting skills in oil and produce some large canvases. As a member of the Emirates Fine Art Society, Ines has had the chance to exhibit at the Sharjah Museum and in 2001 was awarded a prize in the 20th General Exhibition. Her work was also chosen by the German Embassy to represent the country at the Sharjah Women’s Biennale in 2005.

Always looking for ways to move forward with her creativity and improve her skills, Ines has joined master classes with renowned artists in Germany including Otmar Alt and Professor Markus Lupertz  - ‘the classes are more challenging and a way to keep in touch with the European art scene.’ Again, these challenges have enabled Ines to push her work forward and she has been commissioned to produce paintings for corporate spaces including Total, the Central Bank and the Arab Monetary Fund. Her largest work, a painting two by four metres, hangs in the headquarters of an oil services company in Dubai.

Running parallel to her painting and sculpture work are projects that encompass Ines’s skills as a designer and communicator. Her illustrations for ‘Aisha and the Turtle’ and ‘Aisha Saves the Reef’, bring to life environmental based stories for children in a way that captures their imagination but at the same time teaches them an important lesson. Ines also produced the illustrations for ‘Hamda and the Magic Fish’, a modern day fairytale commissioned by a company in Qatar. Ines also participated in the Camel Caravan and Celebration of the Arabian Horse public art projects, her horse design entitled ‘Inspiration’ was sponsored by Godolphin for the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre.

Apart from producing paintings for her ongoing ‘Movement’ series, Ines is currently working on paintings for a series entitled ‘Winds of Change’ these works are ‘an interpretation of today’s faster changing life, especially here in the Emirates where I live and work and get most of my inspiration’ Ines explains. ‘Art, in general, should be fun, a secret companion, enhancing your daily life – sometimes you are not aware of the importance of art in your day to day existence as it is something that is always there.’

Viewing Ines’s work can be a journey in itself, her semi-abstract pieces in particular provide a feast for the eyes not only with the use of dramatic colour and form but the textural quality of the marks she makes by scratching into the surface of her oil bar paintings provides the viewer with more than just a two-dimensional image. You will also find recurring doors, bridges, trees and figures, stylized icons of our everyday surroundings in amongst the shapes and colours of what could be an interpretation of the subconscious mind. The viewer is drawn into the work, past the surface coating, into the essence of the creativity and this is the intention of the artist - ‘Painting is more than just an image – the inside to be discovered by the viewer, they must absorb their own impression of the work and discover their own connection to the meaning of the painting.’