If there is such a thing as painterly autofiction—fictionalized autobiographical painting that explores representation’s effect on the “I”—then the work of Amelie von Wulffen fits the bill. In an eclectic accumulation of styles and references, the artist maneuvers her way through art history, feeling out the possibilities of a voice that could speak about a contemporaneity shadowed by the past, while also reflecting her own position within that present context.

For her 2021 retrospective at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, von Wulffen transformed the exhibition space into a