Positions Berlin

Constantin Schroeder's figurative paintings are impressive, moving images with a profound sense of depth. His pictorial protagonists are fascinating characters that never let us go. Internalizing the present with all its complexities, he uses a very reduced color palette. Mostly executed in large formats, the scenes captivate the viewer with their characteristic narratives. Schroeder reaches deep into the archive of the human psyche. His works reveal an enigmatic iconography, which includes young heroes posing interpersonal mysteries. The artist, who lives and works in Berlin and studied theology, philosophy, and art history, also illuminates the darker sides of life in an extraordinary, hyper-realistic style. These are powerful images that captivate us with their enigmatic pictorial content. Schroeder leaves some parts of the image white, which allows the viewer to develop his or her own interpretation and understanding of the image through open associations.

A vast, seemingly infinite plain forms the foundation for the scene: As if from nowhere, people appear on the surface of the image. They emerge from layers rich in nuances of light white or hazy gray, leaving plenty of room for interpretation. The artist Leszek Skurski, who is a native of Poland, repeatedly devotes his paintings to figurative storytelling. In his works, he depicts many stories, that remain open-ended and allow the most diverse interpretations. They are paintings depicting narratives that seem to have paused or stopped in action, and Skurski captures these forms with a narrative density. Many evanescent moments of our existence and interactions are captured on the canvas like excerpts or snapshots between their occurrence and disappearance. Hence, the images of the artist, who lives and works in Fulda, are reminiscent of film stills or still images that outline a content, character, or mood. 

In Miriam Vlaming's large-scale paintings in egg tempera, the painter breaks down the boundaries between man and nature as well as past and reality. She creates a harmonious symbiosis between these supposed opposites through hazy layers created by the application and removal of paint. In doing so, she allows the depicted figures to emerge from a natural, dreamlike environment. Through this aesthetic, Vlaming opens the viewer's eyes to the multifaceted aspects and philosophical questions of being human, which she addresses in her paintings. Miriam Vlaming always has the overall picture in mind in her mysterious pictorial worlds. She plays with ambiguous metaphors. “Disruptions and contradictions interest me ... the moment after or before something has happened...not the history." Her egg tempera paintings satisfy a deep human need for knowledge. The important member of the New Leipzig School studied at times with Neo Rauch. She was a master’s student under the direction of Arno Rink and is represented in numerous public and private collections.

The paintings created by the artist Laura Aberham, who lives and works in Düsseldorf, are defined by their color intensity and incredible dynamic. Her use of color and form is confident and extremely powerful, and her mostly large-scale, abstract works appear gestural and at the same time precisely composed. Laura Aberham's paintings are a tribute to color. With gestural, voluminous brushstrokes, she skillfully brings unusual color constellations onto the canvas in many layers; here, color itself becomes the concept. The artist, who graduated from the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf as a master’s student under the direction of Ellen Gallagher, found her very own artistic style through her very physical approach to color. At the beginning of her studies, she attended sculpture classes, where she internalized her experiences with volume and dynamics. She continued to apply her experiences with structure, form, and space into her paintings. Due to their spatiality and physical dynamics, Laura Aberham's works appear to continue beyond the edge of the canvas into the space of the viewer.