Rubica von Streng (*1992 in Berlin, Germany)
2012 Studies of Arts | Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe | Ernst Caramelle
2014 Studies of Arts | Universität der Künste Berlin | Mark Lammert
2018 Studies of Art History | Freie Universität Berlin
2018 Graduate of Arts | Universität der Künste Berlin
2018 Master of Arts | Universität der Künste Berlin
lives and works in Berlin, Germany 

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

How to best visualize the questions that arise whilst searching for a meaning in life? Thus enabling others as well as myself to actually envision them. Which techniques and areas of projection are suitable to convey those questions that are of lasting importance to me — and possibly to others? Which paths of exploration and decoding could I chose in my search for answers – and which paths of decryption do I offer the viewers of my works?

 

Anyone who is grappling with current events as a subject in their art has to find his or her own answers to those questions. And as our modern world has become ever more complex, there is a tendency to simplify, as it would result in a whac-a-mole, if we attempted to understand and explain all its details. Nonetheless, I am trying to bear that challenge every day. Luckily, the effort is not in vain, for it yields inspiration and fresh ideas that sublimate and take shape in my paintings.

 

In preliminary studies and during the actual process of painting, those sublimates are first bopping up as fragments, which can be very heterogeneous. At first glance, they might not even fit together. This contradiction, however, slowly but surely disappears. Gradually, the boundaries between the fragments are beginning to blur. And what initially appeared to be incongruous either becomes harmonious – or the independent fragments are strong enough to assert their position alongside each other, thus forming subtle structures of communication.

 

All these fragments are hints. Viewers can use those messages and try to find answers in themselves to questions that may come up while they are viewing the works. The fragments — information bits of low complexity — are transmitted to the recipients through the painting as a medium, with me, the artist, being the originator.

 

Fundamental issues, such as life and death, eros and austerity, love and hate, are important subjects in my works. To fathom them and to use them in order to create a visual room that serves as a place of experience, strongly fascinates me. Albeit, the creative process turns out to be a struggle that serves the purpose to find out which assumptions and claims that were initially made, will persist or disappear – or if any of these could possibly be combined, and how that combination could take place. The painting, in any case, is only completed when this struggle is over.

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

 

2023 | Totentanz | Kulturkirche St. Jakobi Stralsund | more

 

2022/2023 | außer sich - inner ich II | Inselgalerie Berlin | more

2022 | Online Exhibition | Limits of PortLand | Musee Dezentral | more

2022 | Offshore Show | Cloud | Haus der Kunst München | more

2022 | Limits of PortLand | Berlitt Castle, Open Ateliers Brandenburg

 

2021 | An End to Jealousy | Berlitt Castle, Open Ateliers Brandenburg

 

2020 | A Room Of Her Own II | Anahita Contemporary | more

2020 | A Matter Of Touch | Kunst- und Projekthaus Torstrasse 111 | more

2020 | PArt | Online Exhibition | Producers Art Platform | more

2020 | Online Exhibition May 2020 | Galerie U 108

 

2019/2020 | Taking Root | KIT Kunst im Tunnel | Kunsthalle Düsseldorf | more

 

2018 | Meisterschüler Ausstellung | Universität der Künste Berlin UDK   

 

2017 | Inside Out | Universität der Künste Berlin UDK 

2017 | Blick hinter die Kulissen | Rathausgalerie am Schloss Brühl | Max-Ernst-Stipendium

 

2016 | Inner Vision | Universität der Künste Berlin UDK

2015 | Young Positions | Galerie Pankow | more

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

2023

Interview |Totentanz“ in Stralsund | Ostsee-Zeitung

Portrait |Jenseits aller Kategorien“ | ARTMAPP magazine

 

2022

Interview | Kunstleben Berlin

Article |Rubica von Streng porträtiert Landschaften“ | Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung

Interview |Die Stimmungen der Zeit festhalten“ | Art in Berlin

Article |Limits of PortLand im Musee Dezentral“ | Art in Berlin

 

2020

Article | „Über Rubica von Streng“ | Tagesspiegel

Article | „Wie Farbe berührt“ | taz

 

2019

Article | „Natur verschlingt Mensch“ | Rheinische Post

Article | „Wenn der Mensch aus der Platane schlüpft“ | Düsseldorfer Kultur

 

2018

Cover Story | „Totentanz“ | Totentanz-Aktuell-Magazin 233 | Europäische Totentanzvereinigung

 

 

CATALOGUES

 

2023

Catalogue | Totentanz | Kulturkirche St. Jakobi Stralsund | Isensee Verlag

 

 

2019

Catalogue | Taking Root | KIT - Kunst im Tunnel und Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

 

 

BOOKS

 

2022

Limits of PortLand | First Edition

 

2020

Towards PortLand | Second Edition

 

2019

Towards PortLand | First Edition

Totentanz Dance of the Dead Danse Macabre | First Edition

 

 

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

 

Scharf-Gerstenberg

Spiegelberger Stiftung

 

Reproduction photography of paintings and portrait: Efacts Photography