BETTINA SCHOLZ

Behind the display-like surfaces of these dystopian and utopian looking visual worlds, multi layered spaces of reflection open up. They challenge our media influenced viewing habits and enrich them in the sense of an aesthetic experience.

In order to create these dramatic, at times auratic visual effects, the artist experiments like an alchemist: she sprinkles, drips, sprays and collages the image carrier. Above she mounts coloured glass panes, some of which are also painted. In addition to the transparency and the resulting depth effect, the flat surfaces reflect the respective exhibition space and allow the reflecting viewers to become part of the pictorial space.

These atmospherically charged scenarios seem familiar to us from science fiction films and literature. In addition, some of the pictorial structures seem almost baroque in their fullness or reminiscent of Christian depictions of saints. These motifs, anchored in old pictorial traditions, as well as the historical technique of reverse glass painting experience a contemporary and future-orientated interpretation, direction and repositioning in Bettina Scholz’s works. Through their complexity and ambiguity, the works repeatedly open up new perspectives and areas of perception.

In addition to predominantly large-format works, the exhibition also shows some small-format canvases and works on paper. The paintings, drawings and collages are often thematically based on terms and ideas that the artist finds in the course of her search engine and can turn out to be far more figurative than the glass pictures.

Bettina Scholz (*1979) studied fine arts and painting at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin and at the Chelsea College of Arts in London. In 2012 she graduated as a master student of Antje Majewski. She lives and works in Berlin, where she has held a teaching position at the University of Arts since 2014. Most recently she was featured in the group exhibition “HYPER! A Journey into Art and Music” at the ‘Deichtorhallen Hamburg’.