Playgrounds: Solo exhibition by Nicole Henning
Past exhibition
Overview
Impulse Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition "Playgrounds" by artist Nicole Henning, featuring both a selection of older works and new pieces created specifically for this exhibition.
In "Playgrounds," Henning presents large-format, colorful, figurative paintings. Protagonists frolic in theatrical worlds: lounging on chairs or playgrounds, striding through stormy landscapes, or fleeing from a wall of flames. They pose, sing, or dance amidst cacti, coolers, unicorns, and pistols. While initially appearing as a cheerful, colorful playground, closer inspection reveals deeper political and social commentary.
Henning's surreal scenes draw from online shops, fashion and lifestyle magazines, the daily press, and her private photo archive. By incorporating elements of consumer culture and the leisure industry, she addresses contemporary societal issues. Her aesthetic references to comics, Pop Art, and theater set design are also significant aspects of her work. The staging of the figures extends beyond the picture frames into the exhibition space, creating a dynamic relationship between the works and the viewers, with paintings acting as independent actors engaging in dialogue with each other and the audience.
Henning uses painting not only as a medium of depiction but also as a tool of transformation. It allows her to depict the immediacy and mutability of the scenes: the traces of work, the impetus of the brushstrokes, and the choice of colors reflect liveliness, stagnation, violence, and ambivalence. Additionally, painting gives her the opportunity to further intervene in the depicted scenes. She repeatedly uses it as another actor to add an additional layer of interpretation to the content through abstract painterly interventions.
Installation Views
Works
