
How much translation is needed to identify relationships? How does one expose the connection between word and image, between an everyday reality and imagination? The figures in Clara-Lane’s paintings seem frozen in their actions – as young painterly souls absorbed in thoughts – yet, the stillness is deceptive. In this exhibition, they take the lead.
Clara-Lane Lens asks friends and acquaintances to model for her paintings, as well as strangers in a club or on the street. She selects people based on specific traits or characteristics that stand out. Just like one falls in love – by a look, touch or gesture – she highlights exactly those fragments that characterize someone as him- or herself.
‘They never used to talk much’ (Genderless Series) shows us a series of works, created during her time in Berlin, the city par excellence where everybody seems engaged in a quest for identity. Yet, this subject is subtle, indirect. Rather than raising awareness, Clara-Lane evokes an atmosphere. Any indignation about the position of minorities remains covert.
Is she painting a chronicle of her generation? After all, androgyny is a contemporary buzzword. However, the depictions on her paintings are too blank for that. She tells a story, but only through few sentences and fragments.


















Previous
Next