In the n.b.k. Showroom, Katharina Grosse presents a new work that refers to the premises of her specific painterly concept since the late 1990s, and at the same time complementing it with the complexity of the artistic approaches that have developed in her work since: the experience of color and a critical reflection of space. She has become internationally known for her large, spatially expansive paintings that open a space for the paint to transgress the usual pictorial dimensions. Her methods of applying paint, such as by brush, roller or spray nozzle, are as diverse as the supports she uses—paper, canvases, heaps of earth or balloons—and their spatial expansion over floors, ceilings and walls, across entire buildings or as an intervention in the landscape, just like recently, along a rail line in Philadelphia. The starting point for her exhibition at the n.b.k. Showroom is the Ektachrome of her first sprayed wall painting ohne Titel (Untitled), realized in the Kunsthalle Bern in 1998. Back then, a sprayed color field of dark green pigment superimposed the white-painted wall. Situated in a corner, the spatial perspective was negated and the corner itself turned into a pure color space. The canonical work that only exists as a photo is now conveyed to a new context. The green color field is reproduced on white silk fabric that adapts to a corner situation comparable to that in Bern. But it is not just an enlarged reproduction of the 1998 work, because the smoothly flowing, creasing material re-defines the work and its relation to the space and it adds another—tangible and perspectival—level. The cloth comes off the wall behind it, and thus claims its own spatial, plastic presence. Confronting her 1998 work anew, Grosse interprets it through shifts and distortions of time, media and space. The result is a work that refreshes the questions, raised in Bern, from the viewpoint of the current development in the oeuvre of the artist and the broadening of her subjects and methods.

Katharina Grosse (*1961 in Freiburg im Breisgau, lives and works in Berlin) has been a professor at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art and, since 2010, professor of painting at the Dusseldorf Art Academy. In 2014, she was awarded the Oskar-Schlemmer-Prize, Great State Prize for Fine Arts of Baden-Wuerttemberg.Solo exhibitions include: Kunsthaus Graz (2014); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2013); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2011); Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams (2010); Denver Art Museum (2009); Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2009); Neues Museum, Nuremberg (2009); Renaissance Society,Chicago (2007); De Appel, Amsterdam (2006); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2005); Bergen Kunsthall (2005);Magasin 3 Stockholm (2004); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2004); Berlinische Galerie (2003);Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2002); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (2002); UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2001). Currently, the Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia is presenting “psychylustro”, her largest painting in public space so far.

Courtesy Johann König, Berlin