Katharina Wulff

Brighton CCA is delighted to present the first UK solo exhibition of German painter Katharina Wulff, bringing together paintings and drawing from the artist’s 25 year career. Wulff’s meticulously constructed tableaux of scenes of everyday life or recreational activities, sometimes with a touch the suggestive, or the criminal, are rooted in the traditions of realism and the disciplines of observation. The works reflect her interest in scenery, architecture and people, their social positions, their dress and attributes, their figures, postures and movement.  

Rather than suggesting or referring to hidden narratives or relationships within these scenes and characters, Wulff’s work is primarily determined by her biography. Prior to painting she prepared for a career in ballet, while simultaneously working as a hair dresser. When physical problems cut short her career as a dancer she began studying as a make up artist and set designer before turning to painting. 

This early theatrical training, and interest in the visual mechanics of image making, continues to inform her work. There is set design, there are costumes and a strong interest in hair styles and costumes; elements she combines to create images conjuring often disjunctive, artificial worlds. Wulff’s painting is a direct challenge to the ways in which images are created and read as consistent or coherent representations. The viewer is invited to question their reactions to and interpretations of what they are seeing, and to engage instead in a more direct was of looking, founded in rigorous observation. 

Integral to this process is Wulff’s fascination with the physical act of painting itself, a combination of manipulating materials, decision making and autonomy of the image. As with her career in dance or her training in hairdressing, in her painting Wulff is strongly invested in technique. Her primary interest is in using the painter’s tools and media, choosing content and subjects which facilitate her creative process. 

Katharina Wulff lives and works in Marrakesh. 

Image: Katharina Wulff, Grand Hotel Tazi, 2016, Oil on canvas, (157.2 x 237.5 cm). Courtesy the artist, Private Collection, Cologne, Galerie Neu, Berlin and Greene Naftali, New York.

Installation photos: Rob Harris