Jens Nagels

The unfocused in art has a long history dating back to the Renaissance and inseparable from the witnessing of natural phenomena. Environment, darkness and fog take us into the diffuse and secretive. In traditional photography textbooks, focus was deemed most valuable and, until the emergence of automatic cameras, made taking photographs visibly difficult for amateurs. Thus, the production of out of focus photographs did not begin it’s triumphal procession as an art form until the last 20 years of the 20th century, with the exception of a brief stint in post-impressionist 1900. One may ask if the differentiation between focus and unfocused qualifies as a stylistic criteria. Let’s say that the variety of the artist who experiments with unfocused photography, is similarly comparable to that of the photographer who is committed to focused pictures.

Jens Nagels develops a very special acquaintance with the stylistic device of “unfocusing.” His career as a photographer was preceded by his painting studies in Düsseldorf. It is unmistakable that his photography, which as a rule does not reproduce nature but rather second hand reality through foreign color intensified visions, perpetuate his beginnings as a painter. As a gourmet sorts out his delicacies from what gushes out of of the television in his apartment: “ I am not a hunter, but rather a collector,” Nagels says. His two part work conveys the impression of the romantic and closure, the grains themselves lost in a logical color gradient, apparently striving to flow into each other in the assigned pictures, and simultaneously becoming quelled through the sharp edges of the picture border. The photographs live for a disoriented balance: limitation vs. liberation, traditional photographic images vs. pictorial photography, images vs. a denial of information. And that convesys itself to the viewer whose viewpoint ideally swings between the desire for concrete identification and the desire for free interpretation.

Dr. Boris von Brauchitsch

Dr. Wolfgang Zippel-Stiftung
Documenta Archiv

2004	"Contemplation", Kunsttempel Kassel
2003	Galerie Palladion, Basel, Switzerland
1997	DOK4, Kunsthaus der Stadt Kassel
1995	Krefeld, Photo Gallery in Fabrik Heeder
1994	Fridericianum, Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel
	Kleve, Photo Gallery in Schwanenburg
1993	Galerie eye-genart, Cologne
1992	Photogalerie International, Hannover
	Galerie Brennpunkt, Berlin
	Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
1991	Palais Bellevue, Kulturamt, Kassel
1989	Bildzone, Munich
	Raum F, Zurich
1985	G.A.L. Art, Bogotá

Solo Exhibitions

2009	Gemeinsam in Bewegung, Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Deutschland und China, Wuhan, China
	Gemeinsam in Bewegung, Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Deutschland und China, Technische Universität Budapest, Hungary
	Tatort, ein Vergnügen, Kunsttempel Kassel, Germany
2008	TÜV Rheinland Japan, Yokohama, Japan
2007	out of focus, Galerie f:7.2, Mönchengladbach und Kunst- und Galeriehaus, Bochum-Wattenscheid, Germany
2006	Kennen Sie jemanden hier?, Kulturbahnhof Kassel Südflügel, Germany
2004	"Contemplation" , Kunsttempel Kassel
2003	Galerie Palladion, Basel, Switzerland
1997	DOK4, Kunsthaus der Stadt Kassel
1995	Krefeld, Photo Gallery in Fabrik Heeder
1994	Kassel, Kasseler Kunstverein, Fridericianum Kleve, Foto Gallery in der Schwanenburg
1993	Cologne, Galerie eye-genart
1992	Hannover, Photogalerie International Hannover Berlin, Galerie Brennpunkt Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Moderno
1991	Kassel, Palais Bellevue, Kulturamt
1989	Munich, Bildzone Zurich, Raum F
1985	Bogotá, G.A.L. Art

Group Exhibitions

2002	"in between", Kunsthaus Langenthal, Switzerland
2001	"4 Fotografen - 4 Positionen" (4 Photographs – 4 Positions) Galerie Weigand, EttlingenDie Kunst des Autos (The Art of Cars) Kunsthalle Osnabrück10 Jahre - Dr. Wolfgang Zippel-Stiftung, (10 Years-Dr. Wolfgang Zippel Prize) Staatliche Museen Kassel - Neue Galerie
1999	"Portrait & Selbstportrait" (Portrait & Self Portrait), Kunstverein Plön"...imagine", Galerie Weigand, Ettlingen
1998	Kassel, ICE Bahnhof "In the summertime", Galerie Weigand, Ettlingen/Karlsruhe
1997	"Einblicke" (Insights), Kassel, Kasseler Kunstverein
1994	Kleve, Fotogalerie in der Schwanenburg
1992	La Otra Cara, Galeria Suipacha, Buenos Aires
1991	Museum für Photografie, Braunschweig
1987	Gießhaus , Kassel
1986	Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Ministry for Science and Art), Wiesbaden
1984	Kunstverein, Frankfurt/Main