With the exhibition “UFERLOS IM ALL”, (Endless in Space), CSR.ART is dedicating a comprehensive presentation to the artist Peter Hemmelskamp (1961–2006), showcasing his extraordinary body of work. The exhibition brings together works by an artist who, during his lifetime, worked largely outside the established art world and is now being rediscovered as a remarkable figure in Art Brut, straddling the line between figurative and abstract visual language. Travel played a central role in Hemmelskamp’s life: numerous stays in Europe and Africa shaped his perception and found artistic expression on paper. Landscapes, nature and culture found their way into his visual worlds, rich in colour and form. Hemmelskamp’s paintings speak of setting out on new journeys and a curious openness towards the unknown. This resonates particularly strongly during the summer months, when people are travelling. Thus, ‘UFERLOS IM ALL’ invites visitors not only to encounter an extraordinary body of artistic work, but also to embark on a mental journey through the visual worlds of a passionate explorer. The exhibition opening will take place on Friday, 3 July 2026 at 6 pm at CSR.ART.
Image above: Peter Hemmelskamp, Uferlos im All, 1991, 100 x 70 cm
Peter Hemmelskamp was a self-taught artist. He was born on 3 May 1961 in Delmenhorst and grew up in Hude-Vielstedt near Oldenburg in Germany. He came from a long-established farming family, but decided early on against following the expected path into agriculture. An apprenticeship as a dental technician, which he began in Bremen, also failed to match his vision for his own life; Hemmelskamp did not complete it. Instead, he sought his own path – initially through travel, and later increasingly through art.
‘Third Class Through the Desert’
Hemmelskamp’s travels were of particular significance to his artistic work. Even as a young man, he set off on extended journeys that took him to Greece, Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Tunisia and Morocco, amongst other places. His travelogue Third Class Through the Desert, published posthumously in 2026, offers an insight into this early phase of his life. The impressions gained from his travels, the encounters, the landscapes, the colours and his direct perception of nature and foreign lands became an important foundation for his later artistic work. The resulting book will be available at the exhibition UFERLOS IM ALL.
After his second trip to Africa, Hemmelskamp lived in Bremen for a time, but later returned to Hude-Vielstedt. His plans to study art came to nothing. Following a stay of several months in Tarifa, Spain, he worked as an artist from the mid-1980s onwards.
Hemmelskamp’s visual language
Without any formal academic training, Peter Hemmelskamp developed his own distinctive artistic style, which evolved independently of the expectations of the art world. His paintings combine natural forms, animals, plants, celestial bodies and organic structures with a colourful, often ornamental visual language. His works straddle the line between figurative and abstract art, without conforming to any single stylistic movement. From an art-historical perspective, Hemmelskamp’s work is frequently classified as Art Brut or Outsider Art.
From the early 1990s onwards, Hemmelskamp developed the visual language that is now regarded as characteristic of his work. Natural motifs – in particular birds, fish, plants, waves, snakes, snails and other organic forms – merge with geometric structures and vibrant swathes of colour to form complex compositions. Perspective and spatial order take a back seat in favour of a free, associative pictorial space. His painting technique combined, amongst other things, watercolour, drawing, oil pastels, oil painting and lacquer. Wassily Kandinsky is one of the few verifiable artistic influences on his work; however, Hemmelskamp did not adopt complete abstraction, but developed his own figurative-abstract style. His body of work comprises around 120 paintings as well as a few drawings.
Atelier Hasbruch
In 1993, Hemmelskamp became a member of the artists’ group ‘Atelier Hasbruch’, which brought together artists from Hude working in the fields of painting, graphic art, sculpture, literature, collage, ceramics, photography and performance. The group also drew inspiration from the Hasbruch, an ancient woodland area near Hude, and began exhibiting their work together from the 1990s onwards. For Hemmelskamp, this combination of natural surroundings, artistic exchange and creative freedom became a vital part of his environment.
The exhibition “UFERLOS IM ALL” invites visitors to rediscover the work of an artist whose life was shaped by a spirit of adventure, a sense of freedom, curiosity and a keen observation of nature. His paintings tell of journeys, landscapes and animals, of memory and imagination. They convey Hemmelskamp’s great passion for colour and form and open up pictorial spaces in which lived experience and inner experience converge. At the same time, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view works that were previously known only to a small circle of collectors and connoisseurs.
Peter Hemmelskamp died on 27 March 2006 in Hude at the age of 44. Several of his works are now held in the German Bundestag’s art collection.
WHEN?
Opening: Friday, 3 July 2026, 6–9 pm
Welcome and introduction: Stephanie Schneider, M.A. (approx. 6.30 pm)
Exhibition: Thursday 2 July – Thursday 30 July 2026
Tuesday – Saturday 10 am – 7 pm
WHERE?
CSR.ART
Budapester Straße 35-50
on the ground floor, to the left of the entrance, towards the Zoo Palast cinema
10787 Berlin
