2023 Blue Green Black Swirl (Kewenig, Berlin)

SOLO EXHIBITION

Blue Green Black Swirl

Kewenig
Pied-à-terre
Mommsenstr. 4

Berlin-Charlottenburg
2023

All images © Lepkowski Studios, Berlin.

The core of Elisabeth Frieberg’s work is colour, which manifests nothing less than her relationship to the world. For this exhibition, the Swedish artist shows some of her most recent paintings in an immersive installation. The paintings appear very different in their structure and painting technique, but they are united by an artistic approach that is revealed when facing the pictorial invention and its painterly realisation.

Geometrical arrangements of curved lines in muted colours are minutely executed by masking on the still visible, raw canvas. In contrast, there are works where paint is applied comparatively freely, gesturally, in a straight playful manner and often in luminous tones.

Music is an important reference for the artist in her works; it is the source of energy. The lively sequence of tones, the rhythm and the movement are the conceptual complement to the accurate planning of the composition of the picture, comparable to a score. Another point of reference is nature: landscape, vastness and light. She takes her colours from nature and brings them into the studio. They are charged with personal experiences, her impressions and memories of various places. Shimmering, flickering, oscillating plays of colours by isolated brushstrokes reflect an atmosphere that Frieberg connects with her world of thoughts just as much as, for example, a strict, vertical straight line on a painted surface or the negative space of the unpainted fabric.

The significance of colour in Frieberg’s work finds a special resonance for this exhibition that goes beyond the individual works and beyond the wholeness of her selection. The artist incorporates the paintings into a spatial installation by painting the gallery walls all over, in blue, green and black, immersing the visitor in her visual and pictorial memory as if in a swirl.

The diversity of compositions, brushworks and techniques testifies to Frieberg's principle of inner movement – dynamic, vibrantly pulsating, but also calm, clear and straightforward. This principle is visually tangible and physically perceivable here, within this colourful installation, without any restrictive limitation. This is the freedom that Elisabeth Frieberg takes.

Peer Golo Willi

Kewenig