Christine Refke has been a special artist that all who knew her knew. She had her last exhibition in the Torhaus, in Dortmund's Rombergpark. She presented a powerful and colourful selection of new works there, full of energy, wit and wonder. While she had previously worked thematically on gloomy themes, on the transience of nature and man, it seemed that a concentrated joie de vivre was creating space here.
Christine Refke died in November 2017 at the age of 57. She has left well over 1000 works, including drawings and graphics, sculptures, mixed media and large-format canvases. In viewing and cataloguing her work, we have once again become aware of the broad scope of her work. And this art must be seen.
We are pleased to be able to show part of her estate at the Dortmunder Künstlerhaus, where she worked, exhibited and collaborated intensively for several years. In memory of Christine Refke, the Künstlerhaus also deviates from its practice of exclusively showing group exhibitions and opens the exhibition space for a respectful retrospective.
Christine Refke was born in Dortmund in 1959 and studied object design at the FH Dortmund from 1983-89. Her work focused on painting and sculpture. From 1988-94 she was involved in the Künstlerhaus Dortmund, and since 2001 she has been responsible for media didactics & visualisation in the field of architecture at the FH Dortmund.