Heike Ruschmeyer | Searching for Traces

About

Ruschmeyer's painting has the impact of a force of nature. The only thing constant is change itself. In her work, Ruschmeyer has spent decades exploring the contours of death and violence in our society. As a virtual prodigy in 1993, the painter created a furor with her exhibition Maà Š¸lose Zeit, the last exhibition at West Berlin's now legendary Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin. In this breakthrough exhibit she offered over a hundred works mostly in startlingly bright colors portraying the subjects of violent death. Since that time, Ruschmeyer has offered series confronting, among other topics, sexual violence, violence against children, and suicide. All along the way, her painterly aesthetic took new turns, from the explosive drama of Germany's Junge Wilden to subdued, monochrome depictions in grey tones. In her latest transition, the painter presents the scenes of terrorist violence in Germany, from the infamous Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) attacks thirty years ago, to more recent outburst by racist extremists. Ironically the painter's depictions of communal violence work even more intimately than her more personal scenes of death. Viewers who lived through time of the events experience a discomforting sense of nostalgia. Younger viewers unfamiliar with the events feel a sense of frozen history. Complementing the paintings is Ruschmeyer's contribution to the Edition tradition at EMERSON Gallery Berlin — economically priced works offered as exclusive limited editions. The painter's latest edition reveals an uncommon aspect of her work, her use of text in paintings and graphics. In this case, Ruschmeyer takes part in a dialogue with the German WW I poet Alfred Lichtenstein.