Svenja Kreh’s oversize works on paper are tangles of painting and drawing that combine fine rendering and expressionistic gestures into mysterious scenarios. Purity, 2003, depicts a surly angel in medieval robes against a background of thickly applied gold paint; he sports classic, feathery wings, but his legs are coils of metal partially obscured by a maelstrom of streaky black watercolor. In Lachen Jesu (Laughing Jesus), 2003, a dark, thickly modeled mass hovers against the same shimmering gold background, like the body of some hulking animal, while across the surface of the paper Kreh has applied an intricate bloodred decorative pattern reminiscent of Maori tattoos. Also on view here are a number of small, black-and-white watercolors and the triptych Empire of the Sun, 2003, in which coldly pretty young women wander among scrawled texts and bits of fragmented ornamentation. The meaning of Kreh’s imagery is ambiguous, but her work has a presence and energy that seems to engulf the space.
Translated from German by Emily Speers Mears.
