Variation of a well-known work: not by Vincent Van Gogh, but by the Hersbruck artist Ute Plank is the work "Assisted living”. © Repro: Winckler

The pictures are playful, but not silly. They quote, satirise and copy, put figures in new contexts and alienate their statements. Ute Plank, painter, press officer, cultural editor and illustrator from Hersbruck, has found her own expression, which lives to a great extent on the quotation.

For example, Plank takes up medieval painting, uses plate prints as a template, and uses them to create new works. "At night in the museum", for example, figures from the history of art in individual panels are set to unfamiliar places. The Madonna holds a child in her arms, which obviously does not spring from occidental iconography.

Behind many a picture is a direct examination of current political and social issues. For example, "Brexit" is a series of round images in square frames that always emphasize a human couple, always a woman wearing a velvet umbrella shielding her from the real-world beaters outside, the sight of "austerity "and the refugee boat, which bears the name" awakening conscience ".

"Non-Probability Theories" is the title of the exhibition, with which John Hammonds Art-Agency closes the calendar year in the art venue in the Maxstraße. Anna Schwarm, director of the Kulturzentrum Südpunkt in Nuremberg, shows in her introductory speech at the vernissage how the "probable impossibility" in art allows a paradigm shift, moves the viewer away from the familiar terrain, uses the past to illuminate the present. And so, Plank's pictures appear "only" beautiful at first glance, even though the artist has rediscovered her own value of the "merely aesthetic" in recent years.

Behind this are thoughts, questions, speculations and occasionally feminist annoyance about deadlocked stereotypes. That's why Plank has simply re-painted Ludwig Cranach's "Jungbrunnen" ("fountain of youth"), from a man who in the original leads an old woman to rejuvenation to the water, a woman, made a man out of every old, shy or newly rejuvenated woman. The result is superficially fun but leaves room for further reflection.

The fact that reading women are dangerous becomes the title of an entire series of pictures in which female figures in (and sometimes also above) doll kitchens are absorbed in their reading. Women who read, so the first impression in the face of heaps of messy dishes, neglect the household. Elsewhere, the reader's book casts a bright glow on her face, showing how much books can illuminate the darkness.

Incidentally, the vernissage was musically decorated by the trio "Tonträgerinnen", who play and occasionally sing English folk tunes, classical and modern works, "True Colours", a title that blends beautifully with the colours and statements of Plank's paintings.

Experts in light heartedness: Wolfgang Harms (left) and Reinhard Schmid like it "different". © Photo: André Geare

Franken and Oberpfalz joint exhibition in the Stadttheater: there is plenty of mythology and irony in the art of Wolfgang Harms and Reinhard Schmid.

Ms. Luna hangs out with the Egyptian goddess Isis. This is easy to recognise because it has the typical attributes. The crescent moon, on the other hand, which is stretched in a blue night, remains mysterious, a face that could also be the man in the moon. And how is the relationship between Isis and the Moon, considering that he looks away from her, out into the blue?

"Something different" is the title of the exhibition by Wolfgang Harms and Reinhard Schmid, with which John Hammond's Art-Agency starts the new year at the Stadttheater. The title refers to the way the two work as well as their subjects. The Oberpfalz based Schmid, for example, has perfected the art of pencil drawing in conjunction with water colour behind glass, but also works with giclée, believing that artistic work on the computer is perfectly legitimate, even if he would never give up painting himself.

But different - at least in this century - is also the range of topics that the two artists use. Schmid loves the surreal, the fantastic, the surprising and the playful. Often the pictures are erotic, naked or half-naked female figures. Often the pictures are erotic, naked or half-naked female figures with high heels present themselves hovering. Does Schmid show women as a mere object of desire? Not necessarily: The "Erstbesteigung" plays with motifs from the fairy tale "Rapunzel", except that it is here a woman who rises to a tower that not only Sigmund Freud would interpret as a phallic symbol.

Full of symbolism, archetypes and figures of mythology is also Wolfgang Harms' work. The moon bird pops up again and again, as does a flute-playing Pan, who, in a blossom, pursues his musical day's work. Long-tailed birds in heraldic colour fly through a fauna of baroque fantasy, long clouds wind like living creatures around the surrounding rocks. Again and again Harms plays with the motif of the frame in the frame, as if to create another dimension.

What unites both artists is the lightness of their images. Each of them offers possibilities for interpretation, comparison with the models of mythology, with past and present styles of painting, for reflection on technical virtuosity. You can just as easily stand in front of it and immerse yourself in the bright colours of your very own inferno.

The frame refers to Danton's purgatory with an encircling humorous text, but the flames are at the same time the flowers of a cactus, in whose leaves dewdrops are strung like pearls. This is ambiguous, clever and excellent; but above all, it is a nice gimmick that you can appreciate as such.