In Astrid Styma's (*1988, lives and works in Düsseldorf) subtle paintings, items and the human body appear isolated without a situating environment and seemingly without spatial or contextual relations. In some paintings, the clear, stylized forms of crystal glasses stand out against backgrounds of delicate, pastel color gradients, while in another series of works it is the naked human body (parts) – including the artist's – that show, sometimes expose, themselves to the viewer's gaze. The smooth to fragile silhouettes reveal much of the three-dimensional sculptural qualities of these bodies, of the texture of their surfaces, of their soft- or coldness.
Read MoreStyma's works possess a sublime impact. Subtle shifts in the combination of motif, style, and representation literally disenchant the 'painterly' illusion, tipping the art-beautiful into the unadorned. Instead of seducing us into alternative worlds, Styma's paintings point directly back into their own direction, casting a cold light on the 'subject of contemplation'. They are exciting because reality is skewed here, but does not tip over – because Alice staggers towards Wonderland, but does not fall.
Astrid Stym, born in 1988 in Hannoversch Münden, studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the classes of Thomas Grünfeld and Eberhard Havekost.
Text courtesy SETAREH.
