Introspection

EXOgallery proudly presents an all-women group exhibition by international emerging artists.

At the very beginning of our existence, there is only ourselves. Soon, however, the process of socialization, of “becoming a human being” begins and should from then on for the rest of our lives. Likewise, the reflection on it is ongoing. Who am I? What makes me who I am? Where is my place in society? How am I perceived? The concept of normativity takes on a meaning that can be corrective, illuminating, and at times agonizing. The field of tension in which we engage with ourselves and with our environment is the subject of this exhibition.

Four young female artists approach this theme from different angles and from very different perspectives.

Laura Dauchet, with strongly contrasting, detail-obsessed fleshy paintings, shows us what seems visible at first glance. The color scheme here is very intense, at times garish. Pieces of meat – large and small, thick and thin, with more or less fat. All are marked, labeled – evaluated. How often does our gaze end here? When is our view of and into the world just “meat viewing”? Laura pursues a very specific purpose with her works. We are to explore what we feel when we see. Her painting “Sous le couvert de la nuit” was therefore created in direct collaboration with the portrayed women. In an ongoing dialogue, the artist repeatedly encourages them to critically examine what has been painted so far. As a deliberate antithesis to the photoshopped image, the work wants no beautiful appearance, nothing idealized. It wants authenticity. Truth. Personality.

The artist Kinga Su is also concerned with the question of when a person has arrived, reconciled with themselves and their place in society. In a very intensive inner analysis, she sought answers to the question of why it is necessary for us to be seen authentically; why we feel when we are apparently “wrong” somewhere. Society gives us orientation AND confines us. What does this mean for us as individuals? Artistically, she approaches this field of tension from a very personal side, letting us participate in the inner turmoil that has accompanied her path to becoming an arrived human being. Four paintings symbolize the four phases of becoming a human being.

The artist sends the viewer an invitation to set out on a search for himself. It is an invitation to a journey to oneself. 

Likewise, Oksana Sokolova uses photographs and resulting paintings of an old, demolished building to show what could be seen at a second glance. Only if we only look closely. Own, small narratives of a secret life in the hidden…

Ela Urban finally dedicates herself artistically to the question of how liberating and redeeming “being non-conformist” can also have an effect on ourselves and others. She works with non-deformable materials, and geometric forms that convey a rigid order. She breaks this up, from the inside out, solid structures are blown up with soft, malleable, pliable matter. Do we see the liberating blow? Or do we perceive a destroyed order? What does that tell us about ourselves?

Kerstin Zimmermann