Karin KneffelHouse on the Edge of Town–Haus Esters
Opening: Sunday, 18 October, 2009, 11.30 a.m.
Karin Kneffel (born 1957 in Marl, lives and works in Düsseldorf) has for many years been regarded as one of the leading women painters in Europe. Specially for her exhibition in Museum Haus Esters the artist has developed a new suite of thirteen paintings.
With House on the Edge of Town Kneffel has created a cycle of paintings that enters directly into the history of Mies's villa as a residential home. In line with this she has developed a kind of open visual narrative that repeatedly jumps from present to past and often blurs the meaning of the two tenses.
Karin Kneffel has constantly expanded her visual language which she is now working with: An extreme use of details, abrupt juxtapositions of close-ups and distant views, and baffling mirrored pictorial realities are all ingredients in an approach to painting that is dedicated to constantly questioning reality.
The cycle receives a special charge from the fact that the various perspectives could be viewed from both the eye of the voyeur as well as the figure of the dreaming woman. In this way the artist unfolds a panorama of phantasmagorical images which allow the present and history, reality and fiction to merge together in baffling ways.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.