Aneta Kajzer

Aneta Kajzer’s paintings teeter between abstraction and figuration. Working with wide brushes and thinned oil paints, the artist uses bold sweeping strokes to mix and mingle jewel-toned hues directly on the canvas. At a certain (if unpredictable) point during her spontaneous mark-making, a subject reveals itself. A face, a body, a fish, or even Darth Vader will emerge from the gestural brushwork and, just like that, wrest the composition away from pure abstraction. Likening her own intuitive process to a cloud-watcher who finds real-world likenesses in overhead accumulations of water vapor, Kajzer literally and figuratively conjures humanoid creatures out of what Michel Tapié described in the 1950s as l’Art informel.

With generous and voluminous brush strokes Kajzer's paintings sight both calligraphic precision and performative spontaneity. Working simultaneously on numerous canvases the works are intelligent, visually direct and the pallet challenging.

Traditional representation is repealed and the recognisable and non-representational interwoven, underpinning an ambiguous yet clear sense for humour and the uncanny. Having trained her eye with comic strips and animations, Kajzer takes us on a rollercoaster ride where the good, the bad and the ugly have all taken refuge. A haunted house of heroes and villains, where the powerful and dominant can both protect and prey.

Herewith, the hierarchal seems to loom ominously in her works, an observation which can perhaps be interpreted as a vigilant warning or a grotesque condition for coexistence.

Born in 1989, Katowice, Poland, Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

EDUCATION

2008 – 2010 studied Art History and European ethnology, University Würzburg
2011 – 2017 studied Fine Arts under Anne Berning, John Skoog and Shannon Bool, Kunsthochschule Mainz, Master's degree

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

It Must Be Bunnies, PAGE (NYC) gallery, New York (forthcoming)
Sind wir schon da?, Galerie CONRADS, Berlin

2021

Eine 7 wird nie rund werden, Kunstverein Recklinghausen
New Positions, with Galerie CONRADS, Art Cologne
Heavy Water, Project room Semiose galerie, Paris
Deep Blue Purple, Institut für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg (cat.)
Eyes On Me, Project room Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna

2020

Once More with Feeling, Galleri KANT, Copenhagen

2019

WE COME FROM THE SALTIEST SEA, Galerie CONRADS, Düsseldorf

2018

Hungry Eyes, WERK, Berlin
Guilty Pleasure, Warte für Kunst, Kassel
Out of Touch, curated by Carina Bukuts, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

2017

all my beautiful faces, Labor Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen, Rüsselsheim/Main
slightly abstract, oMo artspace, Berlin

2016

MADE IN BALMORAL, Exhibitionspace Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Bad Ems

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022

FLOWER, CHOI&CHOI Gallery, Seoul
Das Eigene im Fremden - Einblicke in die Sammlung Detlev Blenk, Museum Bensheim

2021

Wild Horses, Sim Smith, London
Around the world, Around the world, curated by William Leung, Woaw gallery, Hong Kong
Tiere des Sommers, ASPN Galerie, Leipzig
Spitting Diamonds, rk-Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin
Spot On: Aneta Kajzer, Galerie CONRADS, Berlin
Koi_Pond, curated by KVTV, Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt/Main (cat.)
The Island Show - Spring Edition, Galleri KANT, Fanø (DK)
Mixed Pickles 9, curated by Ruttkowski;68, Goldberg Studios, Munich
At A Moment In Time, Kunstverein Arnsberg
Luxus und Glamour - Vom Eigensinn des Überflüssigen, Arp Museum Rolandseck (cat.)

2020

Emy-Roeder-Preis 2020, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen/Rhein (cat.)
KUNST AM BAU - Freiluftschau ohne Eröffnung, Rummelsburger Landstraße 15, Berlin
The Island Show - Summer Edition, Galleri KANT, Fanø (DK)
Marianne Werefkin-Preis 2020 - Shortlist, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
Joint Gesture, Galerie CONRADS, Düsseldorf
SOFT WALLS, DRY FRUITS, n/a gallery, Seoul (KR) (cat.)
Minibar, curated by Anna Nero, Galerie Oel-Früh, Hamburg
Jetzt! Junge Malerei in Deutschland - NOW! Painting in Germany Today, Deichtorhallen Hamburg (cat.)

2019

NOW! Painting in Germany Today, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstsammlung Chemnitz, Museum Wiesbaden (cat.)
Berlin Masters 2019, Kühlhaus Berlin
Zwei Alter: Jung, Crone Side, Berlin
Facing the Flat World, gallery MMCA Residency Goyang (KR)
DORF III, Im Gerinne 2, Wullenstetten
They Catch Feelings, I Catch Bodies, Sim Smith gallery, London (UK)
24H BRL/LUB, curated by Paulina Olszewska, Piękno Panie, Lublin (PL)
Texte sind die wichtigste Nebensache in einer Ausstellung, Schau Fenster, Berlin
Aneta Kajzer & Hirosuke Yabe, CONRADS, Düsseldorf

2018

ARCHIPELAGO - Goldrausch 2018, Reinbeckhallen, Berlin (cat.)
Tangerine Dreams - RBMA, curated by Johann König, Funkhaus Berlin (cat.)
Congratulations!, Kunstverein Speyer (cat.)
Can I be your Avatar?, basis projektraum, Frankfurt/Main
Gopea 2018, Kunstruimte Villa de Bank, Enschede (NL) (cat.)

2017

Strangers on a Train, collective work with class of John Skoog, Kunsthalle Mainz (cat.)
NEUSTART - Absolvierenden Ausstellung, Kunsthochschule Mainz (cat.)
KAISER NERO, two person show with Anna Nero, ShowMe, Mainz (cat.)

2016

this is a journey to..., Caos Art Gallery Venice (IT)
organized orgasms, Leichhof, Mainz
Besser als Brot, Teiggi 2.0, Luzern (CH)

2015

FOUR GIRLS ONE ROOM, ruelle, Mainz
Cosmic Latte, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden
AUA! Auf Und Ab, Westwerk, Hamburg

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Sammlung zeitgenössische Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Collection of the federal republic of Germany)

Sammlung da Vinci Künstlerpinselfabrik Nuremberg, Germany

X Museum Beijing, China

New Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark

Muzeum Narodowe w Gdańsku (National Museum in Gdansk), Poland

Sammlung Wemhöner, Germany

GRANTS & AWARDS

2021

Marianne-Defet-Malerei-Stipendium, Nuremberg

2019

Stiftung Kunstfonds, working grant, Bonn
MMCA Residency Goyang (KR), Fellowship from the Ministry for Science and Culture, Rhineland-Palatinate

2018

Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt, Berlin

2017

Winsor & Newton Residency, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
Studio grant Labor, Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen, Rüsselsheim/ Main
Gutenberg Lehrkolleg (GLK) award for best graduation exhibition, Mainz