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.