Rebekka Löffler

BIO / SELECTED WORKS / CATALOGUE

Rebekka Löffler (1985, DE) grew up in the Black Forest region near Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). She received her master’s degree at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karslruhe in 2012, and was a resident at the HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in Ghent (Belgium) in 2016-2017. Recently she participated in exhibitions like ‘As if we could scrape the color off the iris and still see’ at Twin Gallery curated by Sonia Fernández Pan (Madrid, 2018); The Other Half, Three Painters at Magic Beans Gallery curated by Jurriaan Benschop (Berlin, 2018) and The Grid and The Cloud: How to Connect. at Vanderborght Building curated by Elena Sarokina (Brussels, 2017). She showed her paintings in institutions such as Städtische Galerie (Karlsruhe, 2012); Städtische Galerie (Weil am Rhein, 2012) and Städtische Galerie (Bremen, 2008).

Rebekka Löffler’s paintings explore the interface between the explainable and intangible aspects of being. They demonstrate her reflection and response to the conditions and occurrences of life. Painful or rousing, subtle or sublime moments of life evoke the urgency to be shaped in all their states of matter and to be coloured in all shades in order to grasp and frame a cleared and decipherable image of life—an image that wants to question the representation of reality, and depict a multifaceted and fluid perception of life.

The initial moment of creating a painting—the idea as a leading thought—leads to new thoughts and associations. Moreover, it evokes sensory perceptions, emotions, memories, and subliminal impressions connected to it. To use the initial moment as a point of departure allows the artist to probe the idea from different angles and to create a space for experience. The painting becomes like a body of sound in which different vibrations resonate at the same time.

They explore themes that are connected to personal experiences such as language and identity (‘Parentsland—Children’s Language’, 2016; ‘Nests’, 2011), moments of realization (‘Giving Things a Face’, 2015; ‘Open Your Eyes and Look at Me!’, 2011) or moments of change and breakout (‘The Great Departure’, 2016; ‘The Scream / I do not see a hare’, 2012), the role of women (‘Courting a Bride’, 2014) and the entanglement of relationships (‘Entanglements’, 2017).

Her reflections on how to perceive a multi-layered and constantly changing world influences the formal aspects of her paintings. The artist is particularly interested in painterly means that influence the perception of the image, especially those which cause movement, rhythm, and a complex spatial arrangement in a painting. ln the painting ‘Entanglements’, 2017, for instance, there is a complex constellation of lines and shapes—round, organic, and angular—that collide, interact, and interlace. The pictorial space is not affected by gravity. Perspectives shift, switch, and fluctuate. Everything floats and moves with lightness in a state of uncertainty. The subject of the painterly investigation of ‘Entanglements`, 2017 is the interpersonal; the invisible web of sentiments spun between humans that catch up with us over and over again—one way or the other.

In the last two years, Rebekka Löffler has started to combine her painting practice with writing, mostly poems and sculptural works in aluminium and clay. These different mediums exist in interdependence. A little three-dimensional paper sculpture becomes, for instance, a two-dimensional painting. A small drawing on paper is transformed into a contorted and distorted shape in space. The words of a poem form the shapes and colours of a painting. It is a working process that allows ideas to pass time and space and to manifest themselves in different forms and dimensions. The place the idea takes in space is always the same but its orientation in space is changing with the artistic tool that is trying to locate it. All the extensions in space breathe the same air of the initial moment and embrace the same following qualities: colour, form, size, dynamic, rhythm and movement, but the degree of their visibility depends on the perspective of the chosen medium.

Education

2006–2012, Diplom in Fine Art and Master Student (Meisterschülerin) of Prof. Toon Verhoef
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
studied with Olaf Holzapfel, Prof. Ernst Caramelle and Prof. Toon Verhoef

2012, Exchange programme in the fine arts
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam

Artist residency

9/2017, HANGAR.ORG, centre for art research and production, Barcelona in
collaboration with Sala d'Art Jove, Government of Catalonia facility, Barcelona

2016–2017, Laureate of the HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts), Ghent, Belgium
Advanced Studies & Practice-based Research in Visual Arts

Exhibitions (Selection)

2018 FROM YOU/ TO ME/ FROM ME TO YOU, Barbé Urbain gallery, Ghent
2018  A place, a word, in collaboration with Ruben de Gheselle and BL!NDMAN, deSingel, Antwerp
2018  Art scene UNSEEN, Kasteel d'Aspremont-Lynden, Oud-Rekem
2018 ‘As if we could scrape the color off the iris and still see’, Twin Gallery, Madrid, Spain, curated by Sonia Fernández Pan
2018 The Other Half, Three painters, Magic Beans Gallery, Berlin
curated by Jurriaan Benschop
2017 The Grid and The Coud: How to Connect., Vanderbourgt Building, Brussels
2017 Trust is not a mood, barely an emotion, ING, Ghent
2017 Open Studios, HANGAR.ORG, Barcelona
2017 Open Studios HISK, Ghent
2015 Luis Leu, Galerie Ahnen, Karlsruhe
2015 22. Künstlermesse Karlsruhe, Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe
2014 Graduierten-Ausstellung, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
2014 Die große Auswahl, Landgericht Baden-Baden, solo exhibition
2013 Meisterschüler in Weinheim, Kunstförderverein Weinheim
2013 21. Künstlermesse Karlsruhe, Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe
2013 Versteckspiel, Poly Produzentengalerie, Karlsruhe, solo exhibition
2013 Graduierten-Ausstellung, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
2012 TOP 12, Meisterschüler der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe
2012 WESTSÜD, Galerie Knecht und Burster, Karlsruhe
2012 20 Studenten v/d Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, 
Galerie Achter de Ramen, Amsterdam
2012 Regionale 12, Städtische Galerie im Stapflehus, Weil am Rhein
2011 Zweifellos-Zwischenträger, Gellertvilla and other places in Karlsruhe
2010 Jahresausstellung, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
2009 Kreide, Fleischmarkthalle am Schlachthof, Karlsruhe
2008 Jahresausstellung, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe
2008 17//24, Städtische Galerie im Buntentor, Bremen