Rebekka Kühnis – When not looking
30. September – 14. October 2023
Gallery Fold presents “When not looking” a private exhibition with works by the artist Rebekka Kühnis.
Rebekka Kühnis (b. 1976) grew up in Windisch, Switzerland. She studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, where she obtained a master’s degree in Art & Education. She has since worked as an artist and teacher.
When she was 20 years old, she spent two summers working on a holiday farm in the southwest of Iceland. Instantly, she felt a strong connection to the country, describing it as a feeling of coming home. However, it took her nearly twenty more years to come back, this time to explore the country on foot, hiking with her tent for several months.
The impressions and sensations she gathered gradually found their way into her art until Icelandic landscape became her primary subject. In 2015 she decided to relocate to Iceland and has since been living and working near Akureyri.
During the first period, the examination of Icelandic nature led to the creation of ballpoint and mixed media drawings. However, her latest work primarily consists of oil paintings.
“I have always felt a need to artistically dissolve my environment or at least to transform it into something less rigid, lighter, more ambiguous.
In Icelandic nature I found, in contrast to my country of origin, something pristine, less defined, less determined. As if everything around me was vibrant, in process of transformation and me being a part of it.
One reason for this might be the ever changing weather and light situation. But behind that it is a more fundamental realization of a constant transformation of everything if seen from a universal viewpoint. I like the lightness behind this thought.
Regarding Iceland, no one described this better than Roni Horn when saying:
“In a literal sense, Iceland is not a very stable place. Iceland is always becoming what it will be and what it will be is not a fixed thing either. So, here is Iceland: an act, not an object, a verb, never a noun”.
In my paintings and drawings this perception plays a major role. Lines, layering, transparency, movement, and the play with gravity are therefore characteristic means of expression.”
“When not looking” is Rebekka´s first solo exhibition at Gallery Fold.
Art Gallery Fold in Rauðarárstígur Reykjavík is open Mon-Fri 10 – 6pm and Saturdays 12-4 pm.
