Konrad Fischer Galerie is pleased to present IM FREIEN, an exhibition of paintings by Tatjana Valsang (b. 1963, St. Tönis) in Düsseldorf. Valsang studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, first with Klaus Rinke and later as a master student of Dieter Krieg. Developing her work over many years, in 2011 she chose to present it to the public for the first time. In this her fifth solo exhibition at Konrad Fischer Galerie, she brings together a selection of works from the past six years.
While chance plays a role in her painting process, Valsang’s works are by no means unplanned. She works consistently with acrylic paint in a wet-on-wet technique, pouring, spreading, and brushing the paint across the canvas while allowing the process to unfold according to natural forces. The rapid drying of the paint creates a sense of immediacy and opens space for further compositional decisions. Her hands-on approach produces organic structures that celebrate the richness of the elemental relationship between flowing paint and surface. At the same time, the resulting images often evoke forms found in nature.
Through the titles she gives her works, Valsang opens up further imaginative perspectives on what is depicted. ‘IM FREIEN’ (which in English means ‘Outdoors’) takes its title from one of the works on view from 2020, created during a period when the artist frequently painted plein air outside her studio. The title alludes to the variety she encounters in the natural world and translates in many different ways into her paintings.
Her most recent paintings, HALMGRAU, BRISE, and URBILD also suggest a connection to nature without depicting it directly. Their reduced color palette underscores the abstract quality of the works, yet Valsang’s distinctive painterly language remains immediately recognizable. The paintings FLUSSAUE, COTTON, PORTAL, and SOMMERVOGEL once again demonstrate the breadth of her technical command while, through their titles, extending the thematic range of the exhibition.
Photography © Achim Kukulies
