Esther Zahel
In experimenting with colours, shapes and materials and how they fit into space, Esther Zahel seeks answers to how the future of painting will feel.
Esther Zahel working in her studio.
In a moment when the traditional arts take a somewhat shy posture, Esther Zahel is investigating how painting, as a classic medium, can draw tangibly into space. This not only refers to the myriad objects and materials that form the subjects of her works but also the train of thought that brought them there and the process of their creation. In experimenting with colours, shapes and materials and how they fit into space, Zahel seeks answers to how the future of painting will feel.
Zahel has an intimate knowledge of mathematics, where abstract answers reveal themselves from the mechanical thought processes which produce them. Mathematics is about process, as is Zahel’s work. The artist asks that every painting embraces the great dichotomy between the rational process and the irrational outcome. For ‘mathematics’ reputation is farcical. Like art, at its abstracted limit, it can ask the same questions about the human psyche, the universe and experience. Zahel is pushing imaginations to consider this realm which has been created from her process, a method of formality and structure that never forgets the moment of existential wonder. Indeed, Zahel chooses neither the reputation of art nor mathematics but pursues her own path between, extracting elements from each to create enthralling works that engage the mind and the eye.
The starting point for each painting is drawing. From this, Zahel begins to play with paint on the canvas, using deep colour and illustrative brush work. Whilst she is working, new ideas and compositions emerge, each one flowing through her brush to concretize on the canvas. Once the painting is finished, then Zahel names each one after its revelation, an important moment in the life of any painting.
Enter Zahel’s world and walk the fine line between reason and idealism, method and unlearning and meet yourself in the space and learn how you fit in and around the works.
Many of Zahel’s works invite a novel perception of the space they occupy. For the exhibition «Kommst du noch mit zu mir?» (engl. «Are you coming to my place?»), the artist installed the works in such a way that an otherwise empty room became furnished with pictures, each one sharing a horizon to create a new floor and a surreal perspective within the space. The result of this is a series of paintings which work together; a telephone and its plug socket, a cat sitting in an air vent, a vase and a book. All sit together perfectly much like the chair you could almost recline on.
The separate canvases remain independent, each one methodically produced as an individual but each one a coherent part of any room of Zahel’s imagining. The viewer becomes physically immersed in the artist’s works, observing an installation in painting in creation. This is another of Zahel’s methods to open up the genre of painting, to sample other techniques into her works and remain open to the expansive possibilities of what happens when you visit a place between mind and observation, where everything is uncanny and yet utterly familiar. Enter Zahel’s world and walk the fine line between reason and idealism, method and unlearning and meet yourself in the space and learn how you fit in and around the works.
Text by Constance Chester
Art not only offers me the opportunity to ask questions but also to find answers and make suggestions beyond a scientific field.
Biography Esther Zahel
born 1988 in Hanau, Germany
Education
2013-2019 Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich / Painting, Class Prof. Günther Förg; Visiting Professor Matthias Dornfeld; Class Prof. Gregor Hildebrandt
2018 Master Scholar («Meisterschülerin») of Prof. Gregor Hildebrandt
Exhibitions (selection)
2021
Supermarkt Frische Lieferung, Group Show, Rewe Premium Munich, Germany
2020
Der River, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
meine drei lyrischen ich, Gasteig, Munich, Germany
Exposition d’art contemporaine, Kunstarkaden, Munich, Germany
2019
Der Traum vom Raum, Galerie Empfangshalle, Munich, Germany (SOLO)
Grzegorzkis Seven, Kunstverein Heppenheim, Heppenheim, Germany
L’artiste devant sa toile, Kunstverein Marburg, Marburg, Germany
Zimmer frei, Hotel Mariandel, Munich, Germany
2018
Hausarbeiten, Färberei, Munich, Germany (SOLO)
Wir schwimmen alle im gleichen Wasser, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, Germany
2017
Go to Paradise, Kunstarkaden, Munich, Germany
2016
Kommst du noch mit zu mir?, Raum 49, München (SOLO)
Prizes & Scholarships
2019 Leonard and Ida Wolf Memorial Prize (Leonhard und Ida Wolf-Gedächtnispreis)
Neustart Kultur Scholarship of the Stiftung Kunstfonds (Neustart Kultur Stipendium der Stiftung Kunstfonds)
Collections
Stadtmuseum München, Munich, Germany
Hildegard Collection, Berlin, Germany
Works by Esther Zahel
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Die Zeit steht
2022 / Oil chalk on paper / 21 x 16 cm / 8.3 x 6.3 in (framed)
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Uhren
2022 / Ink on paper / 21 x 16 cm / 8.3 x 6.3 in (framed)
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Das Haus, das ein Zuhause war
2022 / Ink on paper / 21 x 16 cm / 8.3 x 6.3 in (framed)
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Lampen
2022 / Ink on paper / 50 x 15 cm / 19.7 x 5.9 in (framed)
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sold
Lampen
2020 / Ink on paper / 24 x 19 cm / 9.4 x 7.5 in (framed)
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Die Reise
2019 / Ink on paper / 42 x 28 cm / 16.5 x 11.0 in (framed)
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Die Katze im Lüftungsschacht
2018 / Oil and charcoal on canvas / 120 x 135 cm / 47.2 x 53.1 in
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sold
Hier Amt was beliebt? II
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 40 x 60 cm / 15.7 x 23.6 in
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Wie tief und dunkel ist der Tann, doch mich treibt ein Versprechen an, und Meilen noch, bis ich endlich schlafen kann
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 40 x 60 cm / 15.7 x 23.6 in
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Die kleine Leiter mit roten Füßchen
2019 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 70 x 100 cm / 27.6 x 39.4 in
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Die Dusche
2018 / Oil, acrylic, chalk and wool threads on canvas / 220 x 120 cm / 86.6 x 47.2 in
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Katze auf Stuhl neben Pflanze vor Glaswand hinter Klo
2018 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 100 x 130 cm / 39.4 x 51.2 in
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Kannst du bitte das Licht anlassen?
2019 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 200 x 80 cm / 78.7 x 31.5 in
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Rucksack
2019 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 100 x 55 cm / 39.4 x 21.7 in
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Es könnte regnen
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 120 x 80 cm / 47.2 x 31.5 in
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A wie Artischocke
2020 / Acrylic and paper on canvas / 45 x 60 cm / 17.7 x 23.6 in
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Loch (vorbei)
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 40 x 40 cm / 15.7 x 15.7 in
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Blumen in Vase
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 60 x 30 cm / 23.6 x 11.8 in
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Loch (rein)
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 40 x 40 cm / 15.7 x 15.7 in
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Die Sonne ist aus Kupfer
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 40 x 60 cm / 15.7 x 23.6 in
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Die ewige Wiederkehr
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 60 x 55 cm / 23.6 x 21.7 in
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O.T.
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 100 x 70 cm / 39.4 x 27.6 in
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O.T.
2020 / Acrylic and charcoal on canvas / 135 x 105 cm / 53.1 x 41.3 in