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Lea Schäfer – Floating

Lea Schäfer – Floating

Location: EMDE GALLERY - Mainz

Lea Schäfer – Floating

 

Emde Gallery is pleased to present Lea Schäfer's second solo exhibition entitled "Floating". The exhibition shows a selection of recent works, including both small-format collages on wood and larger formats on canvas.

Lea Schäfer's work is characterised by a continuous examination of the conditions of abstract painting, its possibilities, and limitations. While her earlier groups of works centred on the grid in all its manifestations, the new works suggest an expanded strategy: An ordered structure on which the painting unfolds remains the starting point, but, as the title "Floating" suggests, recedes into the background in favour of freely flowing colours, simultaneously controlled. The larger canvas formats in particular are characterised by a balanced interplay between the uncontrolled life of the paint and the artist's gestural intervention, which allows the "floating" layers of paint to unfold their finely nuanced as well as intensely powerful qualities.

Opening: Friday, 4th of October 2024, 6-8:30 pm

Lea Schäfer's works shown in the exhibition create an inner pictorial tension through the contrast between strict grids and grid fragments – especially dot and perforated grid structures – and abstract colour fields. Compared to earlier groups of works, however, the colour takes on an even greater role and gains in expressiveness. The artist experiments and works with many different techniques and materials, which makes her works extraordinarily multi-layered. The resulting works are made up of numerous superimposed layers of colour, which the artist works on again and again until a composition is created that satisfies her aesthetic demands.

While there are limits to the merging of colours within the small format, the large format and the canvas offer completely different possibilities. The intrinsic effect of colour and form, and the inclusion of contingencies in the painting process are of central importance. Lea Schäfer sprays and pours the paint onto the horizontal canvas, letting it drip and run so that blobs and merging areas of colour form. The compositions develop intuitively in the dynamic process of painting directly on the canvas. Small, seemingly floating, dotted grids laid into the colours create an irritating spatiality and lend the works an additional dimension.

The choice of colour plays a decisive role in Lea Schäfer's works. One colour tone often dominates, be it a rich, sometimes veil-like washed-out green, as in the work "040824", or an intense blue, as in "150924". In some cases, different colours are poured onto the canvas at the same time or one after the other, so that different shades flow into one another and random colour gradients are created, as in the painting "080724". In some paintings there is almost nothing but colour. These are characterised by a tendency towards formal indeterminacy, everything appears casually and spontaneously placed, sometimes resulting in strange-looking, blotchy areas, while in other works an interplay between the development and dissolution of form is recognisable.

In other paintings, such as the works "070524" and "150324", the artist works with a blasting technique. In this process, colour sections of the underpainting are exposed again, creating a new composition of different layers of colour that opens up the pictorial space. The individual sections come together to form a collage-like whole. The result is an exciting juxtaposition of colours and forms, surface and depth. The materiality and sculptural quality of colour are thus emphasised.

In contrast to the very colour-intensive works on canvas, which testify to a great, almost risky willingness to experiment, the small-format paintings on wood appear more structured and concentrated. In addition to grid fragments, the artist also integrates transparent paper into her pictures and sometimes uses a glazing painting technique that enables fine colour gradations and overlays. The atmospheric takes centre stage. Small-format series invite contemplative, associative viewing.

In some of the paintings, one might think one recognises echoes of the landscape, such as in the work "130824", which shows a delicate colour gradient in the background of the painting, arranged in horizontal stripes. Against this light-coloured background, which changes from orange to yellow, green, pink and blue, a dark, striped imprint of a close-meshed grid of holes of uneven density stands out in the lower third of the picture. Above the pattern is a diffuse layer of yellow-coloured tracing paper, which allows the underlying colours to only shine through in a muted way. The fact that the paper is only painted on the reverse side creates an inner three-dimensionality. The slightly creased surface of the paper once again emphasises the haptic quality of the work.

Other panels show large circular shapes arranged in rhythmically different ways, sometimes in parallel rows, sometimes in a staggered arrangement. Some of these circles look like large 'holes' that literally break up the surface and reveal the layers of colour underneath. Others become supporting elements or are arranged in ornamental rows. The focus here is on an investigation into the potential of colour on the otherwise rigid image carrier: The slices of oil paint drip, paint skins hang down, yellow grainy, diagonal stripes flash out, as in "270624".

Lea Schäfer's paintings are consistently abstract. They dispense with any reference to objects and narrative elements. While some landscape associations can still be guessed at in the painted wooden panels, these dissolve completely in the overlapping and merging layers of colour in the larger canvases. It is the pure pleasure and joy of painting that takes centre stage here. The result is an interplay of colour, form, composition and gesture that invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the painterly complexity and lose themselves in it.

Lea Schäfer lives and works in Mainz and Wiesbaden. In 2016, she first completed her studies as a master student of Prof. Anne Berning at the Kunsthochschule Mainz, and the following year she also completed her art history studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Lea Schäfer is an artist and works as a curator at the Museum Reinhard Ernst in Wiesbaden.

Artist

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