Text by Sophia Pietryga

Space plays an elementary role in Anna Leonhardt’s work. On the one hand, in the literal sense, the space that surrounds her, for she is constantly on the move, working both in New York City and in Berlin, and in recent years has set up her studio in Yogyakarta and Brussels or, as at present, in Leipzig. This constant movement, the search for space within herself and all over the world, has a direct effect on her painting. Each studio is a new white surface, filled after a few days with freshly mounted, still white canvases, a little later full of traces of work and new, small spaces in her paintings.

Leonhardt applies many layers of paint to the canvases, which first form a background, often a colour gradient that forms horizon lines and, like a landscape, is the basis for the elements squeegeed over it. These elements spread plastically across the canvas, either by dividing the picture into four parts and taking up almost all its space, or by standing alone and forming points of orientation. In the interplay of the individual elements with the background, it becomes clear that, in addition to the visible surfaces, the spaces behind them, the interstices, are of equally elementary importance, for it is in them that the architecture of the picture is formed.

Through the many layers of paint, the scraping and application directly onto the canvas, the works take on a «molecular weight», as Jean Genet writes about Alberto Giacometti’s sculptures, transcend the two-dimensional space and open up new spaces. Once in the picture itself. Relationships develop between surfaces, colours, layers, which become a closed space within the canvas and unfold a sculptural power through the object-like nature of the individual elements. In the exhibition context, the paintings open up further spaces among themselves. The colours begin to correspond with each other; what role do blue and yellow play? And how do the different shades of red relate to each other? And finally, the exhibition visitors enter into the relationship between the pictures. With every new human interaction, every association and every conversation, new spaces are created, which in turn inscribe themselves in Anna Leonhardt’s works. The pictures are set free and tell a new story with each new visitor.