Katharina Stangler | down by

Snow is delighted to present 'down by', German visual artist Katharina Stangler’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

Vernissage

June 1, 6 - 8 pm

With ‘down by’, Katharina Stangler presents a fresh series of her intimate indigo pigment paintings. The exhibition is telling fairytales, not only in their romantic sense, but by being at the point where reality and fantasy touch each other, much like the indigo pigment diffuse with the water and the raw cotton. In the works ‘Rain’ or ‘Little Round Fairy Girl’ the fairy like beings remind us of a powerful tool of humanity, the innate source of energy that seems to come from nothing and allows us to be creators.

Katharina Stangler’s paintings are born from a deep dialogue between the materials and herself, emotions and material. Working with water and pigments, sinking, flowing and “blooming” on the cotton fabric, a feeling may surface.

“The things we create should be self-sufficient […].” Theodor Däubler, 1916

Katharina Stangler’s paintings are entities whose existence extend beyond the object-based portrayal of subjects. In her artistic process, the artist opens a dialogue between the chosen materials and herself: the cotton fabric, combined with water, creates a painting surface that determines the composition in co-creation with the artist. The pigment, which is applied by the artist in a graphic style, sinks into the fabric through osmotic processes and then splits – or “blooms” – into individual color components.

Katharina Stangler’s work cannot be called “coincidental” or “accidental”, for the artist herself admits that the process is a deliberate one. It is the artist’s concession of agency towards material and technique – from which the artist as an agent herself emerges long before the work is completed. It’s this form of self-sufficiency and agency which Theodor Däubler had found in the early 20th century Expressionism and which can be experienced in the works of Katharina Stangler today. The paintings reach out to connect with the viewer through their materiality, beyond the artistic process. - Lutz H. Bastian-Wirtz (M.A.)

Katharina Stangler (1982 in König Wusterhausen) lives and works in Germany. She graduated with Masters in Fine Arts, Painting, in 2018 Düsseldorf Art Academy, where she studied under the direction of Prof. Andreas Schulze. Prior to her fine arts studies, Katharina earned a Diploma in Communication Design and in 2010 at HTW Berlin.

Curated by Susanne Johansson