Exhibition
Katharina Otto: Arcane
22 Oct 2011 – 17 Dec 2011
About
Berlin-based artist Katharina Otto (* 1979) centers her work around key philosophical questions dealing with the human identity and our transient existence. On small wood panels she depicts her figures, oft human prostheses, complemented with vanitas motifs and abstract shapes. An imagery in subdued colors offers a glimpse of the examination and exploration of the human existence.Ovals, circles and triangles appear repeatedly in Otto's images - as object derivations, outlines of a motif or simply as pure abstract form. Despite the abstraction however, the figurative always remains part of her work. Otto's focus is the condition of things. The painted body acts as a placeholder for the not depict-able, the hidden, and as such, it offers the chance to see what is 'felt'. The paintings do not claim to give answers. Katharina Otto visualizes the finiteness of man in the presence of the unpresentable.