ANOUK LAMM ANOUK

Titled Lesbian Jazz; meditating in the Alps, the exhibition features works from two signature series: the figurative vignettes of the artist’s 30-strong Lesbian Jazz suite of works, and abstracts from their Zen-derived post/pre series. Executed in acrylic on Belgian linen in neutral tones, scenes of entwined female forms are juxtaposed with excerpts of poetic text – ‘you above me’; ‘skin to skin’ — in a delicate interplay of word and image. The works speak to the artist’s free-flowing, jazz-like draughtsmanship and their subtle treatment of intimacy — part of a stated aim to make visible the day-to-day of queer life and desire. Elsewhere, paintings from post/pre explore, with circular forms seeming to glow with otherworldly light, emptiness as a portal to a further dimension of thought. With this exhibition, the compositional features of both series appear increasingly related — figuration and abstraction beginning to meld.

Educated at University of the Arts, Berlin, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Anouk’s work is the product of a meditative studio practice which includes sculpture, poetry, performance and set design. “When you step into their universe, it’s like being in a gesamtkunstwerk,” says Patricia Low. Recipient of the Main Prize of the 2021 Strabag Art Award, Anouk’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Germany, Poland and Austria, including at the Strabag Art Forum and the Belvedere Museum of Contemporary Art, and they were also selected for an exhibition in book form inaugurated in late 2020 by the Austrian Cultural Forum in London along with Central Saint Martins and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Lesbian Jazz; meditating in the Alps is their first exhibition in Switzerland.