You might call them Grimm’s fairy tales.
Artist [and Professor] Gerit Grimm creates her own fanciful narratives and characters inspired by fairytales, mythology, and religion, in making her unique ceramic sculptures. Trained in pottery in East Germany prior to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Grimm began her quest to become an artist by mastering tradition, becoming disillusioned with its limitations, and then moving on to exploring new ways of using her medium. While Grimm’s work has been displayed and recognized internationally, she continues to teach ceramics at UW-Madison and is represented locally by Tory Folliard Gallery in the Third Ward. She currently has a major show, “Gerit Grimm Fairytales: A Time Neither Here Nor There”, at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) in West Bend through January 14th. Urban Milwaukee asked her some questions about her past and what this new body of work means in the context of her career.
Q: How old were you when you left Germany?
A: 28. I was ready to leave, I moved with a single suitcase and gave all of my belongings away. I knew wherever my heart would be I would feel happy and at home. I did have very rough eight month adjustment period; I was not myself at first and I had to relearn everything in a slow painful way. Now I admire Europe for its human principles and culture, but there, I wouldn’t have come as far as I have in the United States.