Federica Schiavo Gallery is delighted to present Horizonte, a solo show by the German painter Clara Brörmann. 

Horizonte brings together a selection of new canvases of multi-layered paint in an exploration of gesture, colours and shapes. Intricate in their construction and condensed in their temporality, Brörmann’s paintings oscillate between composition and coincidence, in a merger of medium and image.

By layering and destroying geometric and graphic forms, the artist constructs an equilibrium between consistent composition and destructive gesture: earlier stages of the painting come to the surface, making possible for new shapes to emerge.

Brörmann, by drawing lines across vibrating colour fields, brings along some order and through a process of continuous conversation with the canvas, reveals an unexpected, narrative structure which emerges from the formal composition.

The numerous steps in the painting process generate a temporal and spatial simultaneity in which the viewer is free to intrude into, in search for a personal interpretation that eventually places the abstract forms into a familiar context. This happens manifestly in the artworks on display from the Horizont and Spiegelachsenbild series, where the symmetrical relationships between the two canvases evokes a spatial dimension, a universal feeling started by a visual process.

“You are looking at the sea. Standing at the shore, just at the edge of the water and watching the horizon you feel weightless. There is no ground in your focus. There is neither top nor bottom, but the sky and the sky reflected on the water.

Then you try to perceive this space, your eyes wandering along the dividing line - the horizon. It is impossible to grasp the total of the space at once. You will need many glances. 

Can painting bear this kind of spacial experience? Then we are talking about abstract landscape paintings, aren’t we? How can I possibly create such paintings? 

A horizontal line evokes space. With symmetry and doubled images I am setting up this line. The diptychs and the reflected canvases in the exhibition are built around a central mirror axis. Taking this axis as horizon, the paintings can create fantastic landscapes in your mind. 

Through outlining an abstract, pictorial space I want to share an experience of landscape with the viewer. Although, of course, the paintings still remain paintings: images, created objects.”

Clara Brörmann