MICHAELA EICHWALD

Rather than pursuing a formal fine arts education, she studied philosophy, history, and art history in Cologne, developing her approach through close engagement with peers including Michael Krebber, Cosima von Bonin, Jutta Koether, and Diedrich Diederichsen.1 Language has remained central to her practice throughout and written material occasionally appears directly on the surfaces of her paintings.

She makes consistent use of unconventional materials; often preferring printed polyurethane fabrics and coloured pleather rather than traditional linen or cotton, applying lacquer, shellac ink, spray paint, soil, graphite, metallic marker, and stickers alongside paint. Before a work is stretched and hung, it may have been stepped on, smudged, stained, or otherwise deliberately mishandled. Her work engages critically with the visual language of Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel, replacing their seriousness with self-doubt and humour, treating the history of painting not as a fixed tradition to uphold but as a resource to probe, expand, and occasionally deflate.

title notes: the exhibition takes its title from mär, a historic German word for a story, legend, or fable, and an older root of märchen, the word commonly used today that translates to fairytale.

1. Elena Filipovic and Renate Wagner, Eichwald, from the introduction (p.10) in the new monograph of her work published by Walther König, Cologne, Germany, 2026.

Michaela Eichwald (b. 1967 Gummersbach, Germany) currently lives and works in Wiehl, Germany. Solo museum exhibitions of her work were presented at the Neue Galerie Gladbeck, Gladbeck, Germany (2023); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2021); Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany (2020); and the Walker art Centre, Minnesota, USA (2020).

Further solo exhibitions include Teil 2, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, Germany (2025); DAS FELD FRAGMENTE SELTENE ERDEN, Reena Spaulings, New York, USA (2025); hirnlose problemlösung gerade verworfen, Marian Goodman, Paris, France (2023); Kartoffelschälgruppe Fragmentkörper, Maureen Paley: Morena di Luna, Hove, UK (2019); SEID IHR DOOF ODER WAS?!??!, Kunstverein, Schwerin, Germany (2018); CONDO 2018: Maureen Paley hosting dépendance, Maureen Paley, London, (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2014).

Works by Eichwald are held in museum collections including Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Lenbachhaus Munich, Munich, Germany; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA.