Brilliantly simple collages by Jens Ullrich fusing sport and figurative sculpture

Date
16 July 2012

Berlin-based artist Jens Ullrich creates large-scale collages that make the careful elision between frozen-moment drama in sports photography and the inertia of classical looking sculptures.

The effect is immediate and extremely powerful; the familiar sporting image levitates with apparent weightlessness, simultaneously graceful and powerful, and yet is suddenly, literally, rendered motionlessness as stone with a passive aestheticism that belies the grainy excitement of the original image. It is a simple sort of brilliance that figured the uncanny similitude between a reclining nude and a pro football player…

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 41 Erigeneia, 2010, Collage on Nettle 113 × 142 cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 63 Eos, 2011, Collage on Nettle 235 × 113cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 02 Taurus, 2011, Collage on Nettle 147 × 113cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 06 Traggas, 2010, Collage on Nettle 113 × 127.3 cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 04 L’Air, 2010, Collage on Nettle 113 × 145 cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 33 Eklipse, 2010, Collage on Nettle 113 × 226cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 60 Vimana, 2011, Collage on Nettle 113 × 222cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 62 Sealtiel, 2011, Collage on Nettle 202 × 113cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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Jens Ullrich

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Jens Ullrich, Flieger Nr. 05 Kniende, 2011, Collage on Nettle 113 × 168 cm, unique, Courtesy VAN HORN, Düsseldorf

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About the Author

Bryony Quinn

Bryony was It’s Nice That’s first ever intern and worked her way up to assistant online editor before moving on to pursue other interests in the summer of 2012.

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