Johanna Seidel: Sovereign Lands like no one's listening

CLC Gallery Venture, Beijing

2024.04.13-2024.05.17

   CLC Gallery Venture presents "Sovereign Lands like no one's listening", Johanna Seidel's first exhibition in Asia, showcasing some twenty recent paintings the artist has created since autumn 2023.

   Seidel was born in 1993 and is currently based inDresden, Germany. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden with a diploma in 2021, mentored by artists includingPeter Bömmelsand Anne Neukamp. Seidel has since 2014 developed a painting practice that is poetic in essence, dealing with the nature of perceived realities. Juxtaposing the urban and the natural into coherent backgrounds, Seidel brings female protagonists to the fore, depicting allegorical scenes that involve both intimate, personal narratives and mythic, surreal elements, sublimating quotidian snippets into messages that resonate universally.

   For the exhibition "Sovereign Lands like no one's listening", Seidel considers the thematic issue of sovereignty, exploring the tangibility of safety, security, solitude and affection in art and life. The titular large-scale painting, finished in 2024, features a reclining female figure in a private chamber, decorated with a delicate orchestration of artefacts. From the large window that looks out to the rather ominous outdoor sight of a withered tree at twilight, the hand-bird that references Czech surrealist Toyen's vigilant creature, a miniatured version ofThe Hunters in the ......