[COLOGNE] A Fallen Tree Still Flowers: Catherine Anholt

CHOI&CHOI Gallery presents A Fallen Tree Still Flowers by Catherine Anholt, on view from 1 to 30 August 2026. The exhibition marks the artist's third solo presentation with the gallery and her first solo exhibition in Germany.

Presenting a series of paintings completed over the past year, the exhibition continues Anholt's ongoing exploration of self-reflection and storytelling, where personal memory, imagined narratives and dreamlike landscapes converge. At the heart of the exhibition lies the artist's grief following the loss of her daughter, Maddy, and the process of navigating sorrow, healing and hope through painting. The exhibition's title, A Fallen Tree Still Flowers, arose from the artist's encounter with a seemingly lifeless cherry tree that unexpectedly bloomed in spring, a poignant metaphor for the possibility of renewal through creativity, even in the depths of loss. Drawing upon a profound reservoir of emotion and memory, Anholt creates deeply personal compositions that nevertheless resonate with universal experiences of love, resilience and hope.

Boy in a Blue Landscape is one such example. A solitary figure sits among fields of flowers and trees, while a dreamlike ray of light illuminates a path just beyond their reach. The painting reflects the isolation and loneliness that, at different moments in our lives, we all experience, "the human condition that is sometimes difficult to comprehend," as the artist describes it. Yet nature, a recurring presence throughout the exhibition, also becomes a source of healing. The lone figure embodies our capacity to recover despite adversity, suggesting that even in the face of uncertainty and pain, renewal remains possible.

Throughout the exhibition, memory becomes an active archive. In Diary of an Artist, Anholt draws upon her lifelong practice of keeping visual journals, weaving together personal memories, historical references and artefacts into paintings that reflect humanity's enduring impulse to tell stories. Pain, love and hope are experiences passed from one generation to another, and by incorporating these themes alongside familiar motifs, Anholt creates works that speak not only of her own life but also of the shared emotional histories that connect us all.

In recent years, Anholt has also incorporated handwritten text into her paintings as a means of documenting her emotions. In works such as Uncontrollable Beauty, spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness writings become an extension of the painted image, adding another layer of communication between artist and viewer. Originally conceived as love letters to those no longer with her, these intimate texts have since become one of the defining elements of her practice, inviting viewers into a space that feels at once like a sketchbook, a diary and a conversation. While deeply personal, they acknowledge a truth that underpins the exhibition as a whole. Even in profound despair, beauty continues to exist alongside grief.

Throughout A Fallen Tree Still Flowers, Anholt transforms personal loss into a compassionate meditation on grief, memory and resilience. While rooted in her own experiences, the paintings remain intentionally open-ended, allowing viewers to bring their own memories and interpretations to the work. The exhibition ultimately offers not only a portrait of mourning, but also a quiet affirmation that through creativity, love and remembrance, healing and beauty can continue to flourish long after loss.