MAGDALENA KLUTH

Within my abstract, textural paintings I explore the spaces that exist between perception and reality, self and other, memory and experience. I grew up in Germany with a single mother and an aunt with a mental disability who felt more like a little sister. Early on, I learned to read people, to sit inside difference, to instantely find a connection beneath whatever was unfamiliar. Years of travelling and living across cultures in Hawai‘i, Tel Aviv and Mexico City deepened that intense curiosity for people and cultures, the intense longing to create connection wihtin every encounter. All these experiences tought me: we are all one. I am you from a different perspective. You are me from a different perspective. I draw inspiration from this ongoing exploration of consciousness, interconnectedness, and spiritual teachings that consider reality as fundamentally relational rather than separate. Questions surrounding collective memory, the nature of self, and of a deeper underlying unity continue to shape both the conceptual and material foundations of the work. The paintings emerge through a process of building layers upon layers of material and color, a dialogue between intention and surrender. Working with a mixture of ancient and modern materials, marble powder, tempera, oil, pigment, silk, and copper, gives me a sense of freedom. Much like our own (idea of) identities, the paintings are shaped through accumulation: experiences, memories, belief systems, relationships, and daily thoughts.