The title of Christine Streuli’s new solo show, NightShadowPlants (german: Nachtschattengewächs) , can be seen as cryptic and mysterious, but in fact the artist looks at the medicinal and spiritual importance of this plant family.
The plants are commonly used for traditional healing and mysticism due to their high content of alkaloids and steroids. The work addresses the use of their hallucinogenic and extended reality properties during pivotal times of stress or exhaustion. By depicting these psychedelic flowers on large format canvases in an explosion of forms and colors, the artist further bends the boundaries of reality.
mixed media on canvas, 2300 × 300 cm
mixed media on canvas, 230 × 300 cm
The works are inspired by Andy Warhol’s 1964 Flowers series. Streuli often appropriates these plant motifs, along with pop art or advertising aesthetics, only to reconsider and develop them in her paintings. Recognizable forms, compositions, and motifs are emulated by the precise application of color, while a tension between figuration and abstraction within the layers of paint and patterns is created. This perplexed reality is further emphasized in her new works. The artist releases the work from strict composition constraints allowing more space for the paint to splatter and spill, and the surface of the canvas becomes conceptually extended.
mixed media on canvas, 2300 × 300 cm
mixed media on canvas, 230 × 300 cm
The new works will be combined with the Warpaintings series, with works inspired by the camouflage patterns.
mixed media on canvas, 100.5 × 67.5 cm
mixed media on canvas, 100.5 × 67.5 cm
mixed media on canvas, 100.5 × 67.5 cm
The forms of these military patterns, directly transferred to canvas, lose their earth tones and military appeal to luminous, radiant colors, transforming militant utilitarianism into abstract-expressive painting. Behind the formal color facades, the images suggest the artist's inner struggle with art, a worn-out battle between colors and canvas.
mixed media on canvas, 234.5 × 173 cm
mixed media on canvas, 243.5 × 173 cm
mixed media on canvas, 243.5 × 173 cm
Christine Streuli, born in Switzerland in 1975, lives and works in Berlin. She completed her studies at the University of Design in Zurich and at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where she now teaches as a visiting professor. In the spring of 2017, the artist was awarded the Fred-Thieler Prize of the Berlinische Galerie. Her works have been exhibited in the Haus am Waldsee in Berlin, the Kunsthalle Zürich, the Kunstmuseum Luzern and other renowned institutions in the past few years. In 2007, she represented the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.