Pink, bordering on bright neon, emerges from the canvas with radiant luminosity, part of a grid that is barely contained by the limits of the pictorial space. Based on photos, Michelle Jezierski’s paintings create a new image of landscape: overlapping structures, fragments of diverse origin, combined with lines, grids and planes that complement, penetrate and dissolve each other. Her colours of choice, shifting between saturated, subdued and bright hues of neon, are a reference to the perception of our time- in a technicized world, earthy colours lose their relevance. Between abstraction and figurative landscape painting, there emerges the illusion of a space that extends beyond the canvas, where perspectives no longer have a focal point, creating disruptions, intersections and, finally, new landscapes. Perception changes, realities overlap, the image is manipulated. In contrast to the extended space of Jezierki’s works, there is Anna Freeman Bentley’s dense inner space.

The most diverse interiors, densely hung walls and reflections of light and objects create a spatial density that ominously narrows and centres the visual field. The generous brushwork provides the figurative with an abstract dimension, further accentuated by the choice of colours- sombre, earthy hues, refracted by an artificial-seeming spectrum of primary colours. The works are suffused with atmospheric depths and complex reflections. Alfons Pressnitz confronts the idyll of landscape with its counterpart, consciously settling a score with the romantic notion of landscape. His partly large-scale paintings emphasize the gaze into the distance, albeit disrupted by several elements. The paper cuts contain an abstract element, the forms become shadows of their former selves and come together in a conglomerate of surfaces that will only ever allow for a fragmented view. The works of Tony Cragg add a sculptural component to the exhibition. Countless organic units merge into one big whole. Based on drawings, the visual vocabulary of the sculptures is dominated by natural forms. Exploring the relation between art and nature, the sculptor is particularly interested in the transformation of things, the different characteristics of matter that shape his specific language. Nature and landscapes are turned into symbols, places of longing, where humans can only ever be absent. Longing shimmers in cold colours, the moment remains fleeting.

Dr. Barbara Jenner is an art historian and independent curator. She studied tapestry (textile design) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, completing a doctorate on early cinematography and its relation to painting and photography in 2003. She then worked for galleries and exhibitions, realizing several projects in the art sector. In 2015, she founded the online gallery Five & Dime- Limited Editions and Multiples. Since 2016, she has been working for the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy at the Federation of German Industries in the sector for fine arts.

Tony Cragg, born in 1949, studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, attended painting courses at Wimbledon School of Art, before enrolling at the Royal College of Art in 1973. In the 1980s, he participated in documenta 7 and 8 and in five Venice Biennales. He has held numerous teaching posts and professorships at German and English universities. His sculptures are represented in many public and private collections worldwide, such as the Kunsthalle Bern, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano.

Anna Freeman Bentley was born in London in 1982 and studied at different London universities between 2000 and 2010. In 2003, she was an Erasmus student at Berlin Weissensee School of Art. Since 2007, she has been the recipient of numerous art awards and has been included in many important collections, such as Saatchi, London, Pied a Terre, London, the Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Collection, California, USA, and the Chelsea College of Art & Design Collection, London.

Michelle Jezierski, born in 1981 in Berlin, studied at Berlin University of the Arts under Tony Cragg. In 2005, she received a scholarship from Cooper Union in New York City, where she studied under Amy Sillman. In addition to Germany, her works have been shown at exhibitions in Croatia, Israel, Italy and the U.S. and are represented in numerous international public and private collections.

Alfons Pressnitz was born in 1982 in Wagna, Austria, and studied at the Ortweinschule for Art and Design in Graz, before attending the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf under Herbert Brandl. He graduated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2007. Since then his works have been exhibited on a regular basis, especially in the German-speaking world. His works have been included in public collections, such as the collection of the Austrian Federal Chancellery, the collection of the city of Graz, the collection of the Neue Gallerie-Universalmuseum Graz, the collection of the state of Salzburg, the collection of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the collection of the RC Albertina, Vienna.