Josephine Adu – Schimmern

Emde Gallery is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of new works by Josephine Adu.

Under the title “Schimmern” (Shimmering), Josephine Adu expands her painterly practice into space, continuing key aspects of her work in which the effect of colour takes center stage. Central to this is the compositional constellation of colour and form, as well as the interplay between the application of paint and tonality.

In addition to works on paper and canvas, the exhibition includes painted wooden panels and three-dimensional objects that exist within the tension between painting and sculpture. Wood not only serves as a support, but emerges visibly with its specific materiality and physical presence. The often thinly applied layers of paint partially reveal the structure of the surface beneath, thereby emphasizing the physical presence of the works.

Adu works through a process-based approach in which she applies paint layer by layer. The spectrum ranges from opaque to transparent color fields that merge into one another, creating subtle transitions. Predominantly muted, often dark tones are interrupted by subtle modulations of light and dark as well as by unexpected intensities. This results in a complex interplay of density and transparency, echoed in the exhibition title “Schimmern.”

Josephine Adu lives and works in Mainz. She completed her studies in Fine Art at Kunsthochschule Mainz in 2025 as a Meisterschülerin in the painting class of Prof. Anne Berning. She has received, among others, the international painting prize of the Wolfgang Blanke Foundation at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, a scholarship from the Artist Residency Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems, as well as the prize of the August Müller Foundation. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Hessisches Landesmuseum Wiesbaden, RedGer Art Gallery in Ulaanbaatar, and Sayner Hütte in Bendorf, among others. She is currently participating in the Rheinland-Pfalz Triennale in Trier and at AKM Koblenz.

OPENING: Friday, Mai 22, 2026, 6 – 8:30 pm 
Gallery Crawl PART Mainz: Thursday, May 28, 2026, 6 – 10 pm, 6 – 10 pm
FINISSAGE: Saturday, July 4, 2026, 12 – 4 pm, guided tour through the exhibition with the artist at 1 pm