Paper Positions Basel

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 Kandahar-born artist Aatifi, who trained as a calligrapher as a child and later received a degree in painting from Kabul University, combines in his "scriptural art" the traditional, oriental art of writing with elements of modern, European art in an innovative and masterly way. At the core of his paintings lies the light-hearted dance of the letters, which takes the viewer on a journey into previously unknown realms of art. Even without deciphering distinct letters, the observer is welcomed to experience the beauty of the colors, which model the tension of the forms and their spatial effect, as well as their intense, aesthetic radiance. The characters, consisting of broad brushstrokes, form voluminous figures on the light background, individual splashes of paint expose traces of the painting process and offer a certain spontaneity to the works created under the highest concentration.