STEFFI WEIGEL / AQUARELLE / May 16 – June 21, 2008

exhibition views (please click on the image to enlarge):

(Photos: Uwe Walter)

In her recent work the artist Steffi Weigel goes on a search for the origin of our lives. Gentle watercolor paintings on large canvas show portraits of babies, a few moments after their birth. The artist faces the newborns and puts herself into their situation: What goes on in their heads? What do they dream about?

Steffi Weigel makes larger-than-life paintings of the infant heads; close-up ranges. The painted faces reflect endeavor and exhaustion after the first major battle. Because of the transparent brush strokes the heads have an unprotected and fragile impression. In addition to the bright, large canvas Steffi Weigel produces small, dark works on wood. The warmth of the wood and the colors surround the babies like a small personal cocoon. The woodworks form the contrast to the works on canvas. Arisen from the warmth and comfort the infants are born into the brightness, the emptiness and the unknown. Without own memory and experience, like an unknown quantity, the newborn babies take their place in life and turn like an efflorescent bud to the light and the world. [...]

Steffi Weigels paintings are realistic and very honest. Similar to the representation of newborns by Marlene Dumas her works describe the first encounter with new life as strange, leave us with an irritating but also wonderful impression of the presence of the small beings with own living will and determination. Next to the directness and uncertainty Steffi Weigels work support a very positive message. Her newborns do not solely stand for the confrontation with the reality of being a mother, rather for life itself with all its regeneration and durability. The birth is the beginning of life; every birth is a new beginning and stands for new opportunities.

(Text by Anna von Bodungen, April 2008)

Opening documented by the Berlin Artcontacter:
www.berlinerkunstkontakter.de