Embracing the events and incidents that arise as she paints, Katharina Grosse opens up surfaces and spaces to the countless perceptual possibilities of the medium. While she is widely known for her temporary and permanent in situ work, which she paints directly onto architecture, interiors, and landscapes, her approach begins in the studio. With calculated focus, she allows new patterns and procedures in her paintings to emerge from action, further multiplying this potential with stencils cut from cardboard and thick foam rubber—tools with which to develop further cuts, layers, and perspectival depths. Grosse’s gestures unfold all at the same time in unmixed acrylic colours, engulfing the viewer in a toxic sublime.
Read MoreGrosse was born in 1961 in Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Kunstakademie Münster, Germany. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Hammer Projects: Katharina Grosse, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2001); Artsonje Museum, Gyeongju, South Korea (2001); Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany (2002); Der weisse Saal trifft sich im Wald, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (2002); Perspectives 143: Katharina Grosse, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2004); Safn, Reykjavík (2004); Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark (2004); Something Leadlight, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2005); Constructions à cru, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2005); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2006); Factory for Art and Design, Copenhagen (2006); FRAC Auvergne, France (2007); Atoms Outside Eggs, Museu de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2007); FRAC Auvergne, France (2008); Hello Little Butterfly I Love You What’s Your Name, ARKEN—Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen (2009); Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany (2009); Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany (2010); One Floor Up More Highly, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2010); Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2011); Third Man Begins Digging Through Her Pockets, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2012); Two younger women come in and pull out a table, De Pont Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands (2013); WUNDERBLOCK, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2013); Inside the Speaker, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2014); yes no why later, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015); Seven Hours, Eight Rooms, Three Trees, Museum Wiesbaden, Germany (2015); and Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany (2016). Grosse’s recent site-specific installations include Untitled Trumpet, for the 56th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2015); Rockaway! for MoMA PS1’s Rockaway! program (2016); The Horse Trotted Another Couple of Meters, Then It Stopped, Carriageworks, Sydney (2018); and Wunderbild, National Gallery, Prague (2018).
Grosse lives and works in Berlin.
Text courtesy Gagosian.