a siren's lull

17.2. - 
3.3.2024

dod gallery x pov contemporary,
cologne

In a joint curation, the young Cologne gallery DOD and POV contemporary present the artist Bettina Marx.

The solo show A Siren's Lull oscillates between delicate brushstrokes and scarcely tangible, rugged forms, leaving the audience entirely to their own interpretation. While Marx's work may appear delicate and fragile at first glance, upon closer inspection, it is characterized by various facets of the human subconscious. Sometimes more and sometimes less clearly, it lures with gestures, only to then withdraw from the viewer. The reluctance to adhere to a specific style, the blurring of figuration and abstraction, indeed points to Marx's influences. The spontaneous painting of Helen Frankenthaler becomes just as recognizable here as the immediate proximity to the work, which is also the result of the working process: painting on the floor with its direct habitus, bridging any distance to the depicted. Also, the irrational and symbolic aspects of Max Ernst can be found in Bettina Marx's paintings. Like Ernst, the artist explores the world of emotions and dreams, creates surreal scenes, and ultimately detaches herself from them in a non-representational visual language. 

This spirit of experimentation is also evident in A Siren's Lull in the disregard for architectural boundaries and the refusal to adhere to a specific materiality - a subtle confusion that results from playing with the unexpected. 

The obvious judgment of fragility, is just a trick as the title of the show already suggests: like the sirens in mythology, whose beauty dominates superficially but harbors a 'hidden agenda' Marx's work also uses the allure of immediate aesthetics to convey something lying beneath. A Siren's Lull, however, is not a gloomy odyssey - the work is rather an invitation to an open-ended journey, an exploration of oneself and one's own, sometimes unconscious associations. 

The artist Bettina Marx (b. 1981) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Münster until 2008 as a master student under Cornelius Völker. In 2009, she was a guest student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf under Peter Doig. Recently, the artist exhibited her work at the Kunstverein Emsdetten, the Museum Haus Operdicke, and the Fullersta Gård Museum in Stockholm. 

entropic motion

25.10. - 14.12.2023

group exhibition: galerie judith andreae,
bonn

the second exhibition space is occupied by guest artists whom julia gruner has encountered during her artistic career, with whom she has already realized projects and exhibitions, conceived artistic performances and video works, or who have piqued her curiosity for future collaborations. 

the group exhibition, running under the format feat. liza dieckwisch, kathrin graf, klara kayser, bettina marx, and nikola ukic, not only explores aesthetic connections to the works of julia gruner. all artists share a strong interest in the question of "materiality" and how this can be translated into painting and sculpture.

midnight leaves

5.10. - 31.12.2023

art au centre,
liège

During the night, the eye and the ear paint their own landscape: in shades of blue, pink, and purple. Bettina Marx captures these landscapes on canvas, paper, and wood. Materials that form volumes yet remain movable. As a painter, she primarily operates on a surface, a plane on which she stacks small elements. She paints abstract details that condense and thus occupy the entire surface. She discovers these fragments in the nocturnal landscape surrounding her and brings them into the space through which the viewers move. From abstract elements and flat details, a unique landscape emerges, a thicket of structures takes shape.

Marx emphasizes the fragility of things and highlights the fragility of the world: in 'Midnight Leaves,' fragility is the central motif. She skillfully balances the smallness of the fragments into a harmonious unity in a poetic manner. She is interested not only in the connection of the small elements in her painterly installations but also in the larger interplay of all elements, whether concrete in the cityscape or abstract in society. Marx's work thus becomes a symbol of connections and relationships that reflect our world in all its complexity and beauty.

Curator & Text: Marie-Claire Krell

elective affinities

23.4. - 21.5.2022

group exhibition: setareh,
düsseldorf

setareh is pleased to present the group exhibition elective affinities with works by kate andrews, wolfgang betke, gregor gleiwitz, philipp goldbach, bettina marx, sebastian riemer, laura sachs and elsa sahal. 

the exhibition, whose title refers to the novel by johann wolfgang von goethe, combines a wide variety of art genres such as painting, photography, sculpture and textile art. the diverse colours, forms and structures interact with each other within the space, constantly creating new connections based on elective attraction, almost as in interpersonal relationships. 

wander, drift, melt and fold

22.1. - 10.4.2022

fullersta gård
stockholm

Bettina Marx (b. 1981) is based in Bonn, Germany and works with painting, printmaking and spatial installations. Her imagery oscillates between abstraction and figuration and builds upon traces of a place’s history or properties. The exhibition title Wander, drift, melt and fold hints at the multitude of movements - historical, temporal, meteorological, processual and production-related - that we meet in the work of Bettina Marx.

the exhibition at fullersta gård is primarily based on a series of works she created after a trip to hälsingland and dalarna in 2018, now shown in sweden for the first time. with an initial interest in the ornamental kurbits paintings by itinerant painters and the famous falu red colour, she visited historical farms in dalarna. In addition, she also visited historical farms in hälsingland listed as unecso world heritage.

-5

30.10. - 7.11.2021

group exhibition: tiefkeller x
artist mukbang

a damp, dark cellar, immersed in pink light from plant lamps, a jungle of hanging and lying ceramic sculptures by tiefkeller combined with edible, synthetic-looking objects by the artist duo artist mukbang*. a collection of trees**, which is the starting point and part of tiefkeller's sixth installation, but can only be experienced in an indirect way. 

in " -5 " it sprawls, congeals, smacks, drips, rustles, flickers, hangs. the installation oscillates between direct and indirect experience of nature and at the same time questions our relationship to it. what meaning do liveliness and sensuality have in a controlled, digitalized society striving for security? [...]
 

siblings

25.6. - 19.9.2021

kunst-station
sankt peter cologne

the relationship with siblings does not only move between competition and friendship, rivalry and loyalty in mythology and biblical stories. it is often one of the longest relationsships in our lives. it is percisly in the similarity of brother or sister that there is usually the greatest potential for tension.

bettina marx's installation "siblings", which was largely created on site at the kunst-station sankt peter, feels and explores the different architectural elements, indentations and depressions of the exposed masonry in the gallery. [...]

eden

29.10. - 7.11.2020

goldstein
galerie frankfurt

at a time when travel is strongly discouraged and when accommodation bans are imposed and regulations formulated for travel returnees, a residency on the subject of travel is an exciting undertaking. for the occasion, artist bettina marx embarked on a digital image and conversation exchange with selbermann, artist of atelier goldstein.

he provided orientation for this in his special poetic way of expression, drawing a cityscape according to his perception and gusto. he regularly linked his interest in buildings, especially towers, with personal anecdotes and memories, locating himself in his surroundings. on this basis, bettina marx has created her own interpretation of the wider goldstein gglerie area. [...]

heaven and earth on one stroke

12.08. -28.08.2020

setareh düsseldorf

setareh is pleased to present in august a selection of new works by the artists sassan behnam-bakhtiar, gregor gleiwitz, yang jiechang, maki na kamura, bettina marx, laura sachs, sebastian riemer and bettina scholz.
"heaven and earth in one stroke" is inspired by the two-part work group of the same name 

by the chinese artist yang jiechang.
the title is intended to provide a thematic bracket for compositional techniques that, in addition to photography, range in composition from classical oil painting to ink drawing, frottage and the extended practices of painterly deconstruction.

a solid into
a liquid

7.9. - 5.10.2019

setareh x düsseldorf

bettina marx shows her debut solo exhibition at SETAREH X within the frame of this year's DC open. In addition to the presentation of large-format paintings on wood and paper and objects made of painted bark, the artist also sees the exhibition space as a part of her installation.

in addition to applying paint with a brush and conventional tools, marx also uses objects from nature or industry as printing forms, such as tree trunks, bark or plastic foil, using them like a stamp or a printing roller to apply paint to the painting surface. the resulting structures are then refined with a brush. [...]

trommel-nde scherben

28.1. - 4.3.2018

kunstverein 
leverkusen

"drumming shards: a scenery is created, spaces of memories emerge in which the viewer can locate himself between individual works and become part of a staging or, 

in a broader sense, a choreography. painted spaces between landscape and interior that refer to a journey to china." bettina marx

enga
mind your head

1.11.18 - 29.4.2019

kunstmuseum bonn

as much as bettina marx loves her intimate work within the studio, she nevertheless feels a need for external stimulation as a source of inspiration for new developmental steps in her creative production. in 2015, she traveled through england on a journey which—like many others—left its traces in her oeuvre. this is documented by the exhibition room which she designed here in bonn;

the dominant hues of green, black and white are “english” colors for her, colors of nature and of the half-timbered houses that mark england’s landscape. the latter are mirrored in the black-and-white, “half-timber” structure of the object which, placed on the floor, oscillates between sculpture and display cabinet. [...]

flora
war
falk

24.3. - 11.6.2017

museum ostwall
dortmund

in her exhibition at the MO schaufenster, bettina marx, winner of the north rhine-westphalia development prize, combines drawings, paintings and spatial elements to create an installation. colours, structures and patterns intervene in the space, boundaries dissolve. abstract-looking landscapes and drawings find their place. a large wall painting is created. it becomes the centre of the painterly and at the same time poetically questionable overall staging.

the diverse arrangement of individual works responds to the specific spatial situation and invites a choreography of seeing and perceiving.
bettina marx also draws subtle references to works from the collection presentation and integrates her own group of works "nam" from 2016/17, which take up her travel impressions of the landscapes of namibia, into the display window.

polter

4.3. - 5.3.2016

THE SAME berlin

the ensemble polter is a multi-part work consisting of two columns, a cushion, drawings and a wall object. the two columns are pieces of wood trunks of different heights and widths, some of which are dyed. 

they are stacked on site, depending on the height of the ceiling, and sandwiched between the floor and ceiling using silver envelopes. the wall object is in two parts and consists of a painted fabric and a wooden box picture.

villa romana fellows

2016

villa romana
florence, italy

installations by nico joana weber

that's how the light gets

5.6. - 25.9.2016

kunsthaus NRW kornelimünster aachen

the surface of things has cracked - a thought awakened by the works shown in the exhibition. artists born in 1980 scratch the surfaces and break them open. be it in photography, painting, sculpture or painting, they let us look into the essence of things through breaks, revisions, mistakes.

how they are constructed, what their deeper meanings are. as leonard cohen indicated with the line from his song "anthem": there is a crack in eyerything / thats how the light get's in. the crack allows the fragility of the designed world to emerge.

leftovers

8.11. - 6.12.2015

emsdettener kunsterverein

the two rooms of the münsterland gallery will be dislocated, disintegrated and recomposed by bettina marx's works. in a playful way, the artist enters the space with finished paintings and prints on the one hand, interweaves them further with works planned especially for the space and complements them with discoveries on the spot. 

her spatial works, which were planned in their nature for the premises of the galerie münsterland and respond to the peculiarities of the rooms, thereby enter into a community with the paintings and prints, which precisely through their different possibilities allow a special peculiarity to emerge.

brahn

6.11. -22.11.2014

artothek
cologne

great honour for a great artist: bettina marx received the friedrich vordemberge scholarship of the city of cologne in 2014. on the occasion of this award for visual arts, the artothek is showing the exhibition "BRAHN" by the award winner.

marx has developed a spatial collage especially for the artothek in which she combines the existing with the invented. for her work, she searches for existing niches and spaces and invents new ones, lining them with images that further describe the place.

secret land

30.3. - 27.4.2014

orangerie schloss
rheda

an art exhibition with anne carnein, vivian greven and bettina marx. the three young artists show works that deal with the theme of landscape in a broader sense.

landscape in a broader sense. the works approach the traditional object through various media and illuminate it on different levels of meaning.

engawarau

6.11. -22.11.2015

kunstverein arnsberg

with a multi-faceted programme of music and literature as well as an exhibition opening at the arnsberg art association, the GWK society for westphalian cultural work presents the winners of its sponsorship awards for young artists this year. in cooperation with the city of arnsberg, the award ceremony will take place on sunday, 29 september at 11:30 a.m. in the kulturschmiede arnsberg.

the public is cordially invited to attend. three visual artists, two classical musicians and one writer will be awarded the coveted prizes. the six prizes awarded by the sponsoring association, which is based in münster, have a total value of 35,000 euros. in addition, the GWK includes the prize winners in a multi-year sponsorship programme.

art since

2013

schloss ringenberg
hamminkeln

the ART SINCE 2013 exhibition brings together the works created by the scholarship holders at schloss ringenberg over the course of the year. if one understands schloss ringenberg as the centre of life for its residents, the artists, a microcosm is temporarily created within the castle walls. 

here the curators jürgen dehm and suzie hermán have found have found seven positions of contemporary art, four from north rhine-westphalia and three from the netherlands. for the scholarship holders' exhibition, these will now be put into dialogue with each other in the exhibition rooms for the first time.

here is always some-where else

28.7. - 29.9.2013

kasteel oud-rekem, belgium

“while a dog is barking, a bird chirping and a tiger roaring, the silence remains silent, only human being “succeeds” to rupture it.“ but what kind of grasp the obliterated silence holds on itself?

despite the individual student’s positions of the class of prof. rosemarie trockel one can feel a certain atmosphere that also suggests a special attitude. [...]