Artists

Grit Richter

Press release

Grit Richter‘s solo exhibition Breathe Out at Galerie Tanja Wagner showcases new paintings, each of which opens up a completely different world. In her latest works, figurative elements are shaped with concrete actions and placed in scenic spaces. 

Human relationships, sexuality, exhaustion, desire, a sense of irony and miscommunication are evoked, as in the large-scale work The Broken Hearts Society, where two curvy, faceless bodies sprawl on the floor. The scene, bathed in warm red and purple tones, feels intimate—yet upon closer inspection, however, the gestures of the figures reveal a fist formed into a casual fist bump on one hand, and on the other, half of a hopeful hand-heart.

References to the digital world are present in Richter’s work in many ways. The ethereal color gradients, cloud- and star-filled skies, and grids are reminiscent of those familiar from computer programs like Windows or Photoshop and reappear as a subtle white-gray gridded carpet throughout the exhibition space. Richter consciously chooses such backgrounds as a simple yet effective way to give her figures a pictorial space. During the creation process, she works exclusively digitally—this allows her to experiment with scenarios and assign different spaces and actions to the figures until the final sketch is set. Layer by layer, controlled and precise, Richter then applies oil paint to the canvas, which in their intensity and clarity appear to glow from within.