Alex Diamond: "It's All Good" : At the Barlach Halle K

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of our gallery heliumcowboy, we decided to host the largest solo exhibition to date of the artist Jörg Heikhaus aka Alex Diamond at a special venue, the Barlach Halle K.

Here he presents completely new and never before shown series of works: 300 drawings, a return to painting and of course his layered, meticulously crafted and detailed woodcuts, which he mixes with various painting and coloring techniques which have become his trademark. During the exhibition, a walk-in installation will also be created on site and in public.

In 2002, Jörg Heikhaus founded the heliumcowboy artspace in his studio at Sternstraße 4 (St. Pauli / Schanze) as a place for joint exhibitions with artist friends. Within the first year, however, the very unusual exhibition space developed into a young, modern gallery that attracted a great deal of attention in the international art business and became an important platform for new and progressive trends in contemporary art. Under the motto "A cowboy's work is never done", which has existed since the beginning, heliumcowboy continues to present exciting young and established artists on the contemporary art market.

Parallel to his work in the gallery, Jörg Heikhaus made his own art under the artist name Alex Diamond, which was also represented internationally at other galleries, including in Barcelona, New York, Aalborg and Cologne. A few years ago, Jörg withdrew from gallery work and handed over responsibility for heliumcowboy to his son Melvin Heikhaus (24) in order to concentrate solely on his own art. The art is created in a part of the gallery space at Bäckerbreitergang 75 in Hamburg, which he has converted into a studio and wood workshop, as well as in his second studio in the far north of Schleswig Holstein.

As the founder of heliumcowboy and since the gallery was established in his studio 20 years ago, it was only natural to give Jörg Heikhaus aka Alex Diamond a big stage for his anniversary, which he found in the renowned Barlach Halle K.

Alex Diamond sees himself primarily as a "storyteller". The main part of his work consists of analyzing and interpreting contemporary culture and its recurring patterns of recognition. The artistic focus is on the study of the social and cultural aspects of human coexistence.

There is always a sense of political and social unease in Alex Diamond's work. As an artist, he accepts the responsibility to express himself on pressing issues of our time through his own means. There is great anger to be felt, but also hope and encouragement for change. However, this depth of content is not in the aesthetic and thus visible foreground, but develops like a good song by getting involved with melody and rhythm, harmony and disharmony, text and voice.