We are delighted to announce the second solo exhibition of the German painter Annabell Häfner, entitled “The Void of Now” at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle.

In poetic dreamscapes, the artist explores the relationship between anthropogenic infrastructure and nature. Abstract landscapes already suggested in her previous works have become increasingly concrete. Through placement and omission, mountain ranges and cloud formations take on greater significance. Inspired by stories of her childhood (such as those of the Siebengebirge, the seven-hill region of northern Germany said to have been created by seven giants on the banks of the Rhine), Häfner explores myths and legends. One of her inspirations—Japanese woodblock prints and 17th-century ukiyo-e paintings— now comes to the forefront. Color schemes, compositional elements, as well as subjects seem to be borrowed from ukiyo-e, more specifically from the fūkei-ga subgenre. In particular, the clear and simplified lines and formal language, the use of bold but low-contrast color and the resulting subdued pictorial mood are reminiscent of the often graphic, two-dimensional images of the Edo period. Annabell Häfner's lyrical paintings also reference the content and formal aspects of color field painting’s horizontal compositions and diffuse color fields. With the emergence of color field painting in the 1940s, color took on a qualitatively new meaning concerning space. In 1967, Michel Foucault spoke of the “age of space” and thereby referenced the spatial turn (a shift towards space) in art research and practice from the 1960s onwards. In Annabell Häfner's work, this color space is not only abstract but is composed via a continually repeated spatial structure. This structure suggests an “inside” and “outside” perspective, which merges symbiotically into a highly sensitive entity. The horizontal structure is intersected by a few finely pointed vertical lines to appear like a technical glitch. This glitch opens yet another essential dimension of Häfner's content against which her works can be viewed. The painting’s surreality appears strangely anachronistic, retrospective and forward-looking at the same time. The chosen colors and perspectival inconsistencies emphasize their fictiveness and artificiality. These elements inevitably recall the virtual, imagined visual worlds of more recent immersive applications, which can transcend physical reality through various creative options.