Text: Laetitia Gorsy
Welcome to Gala, Inga Kerber’s latest exhibition. Here, the flâneurs and the curious are invited to immerse themselves in a universe where every detail unfolds with subtlety. Through her bold and multifaceted practice, the artist constructs an extensive body of work that integrates photography, drawing, installation, and printmaking. Her creations are implicitly influenced by Land Art, Arte Povera, Book Art, and, more recently, Figurative Painting. Inga Kerber’s work is an ode to imperfection, rooted in simplicity and contemplation.
When I first met Inga Kerber in 2012, I was struck by her sunny yet complex and multi-layered personality, which is deeply reflected in her impressive body of work. What immediately captivated me was the conceptual depth of her photographic practice. The artist primarily focuses on human figures, flowers, and plants, developing series that explore the concept of “cliché” as a stereotype through repetition and unique printing techniques. By embracing the physicality of analogue photography, she anchors her work in a specific time and place.
Over time, I had the pleasure of witnessing her experiments with floral ornamentation. On one hand, she embraces simplicity by creating bouquets for those around her, offering her own interpretation of fleuristerie. On the other, she unleashes her wild creativity through splendid installations and sculptural volumes composed of wildflowers and plants. These ephemeral altars have deeply influenced all aspects of her practice. I was particularly moved to learn that she owns a small garden parcel in a communal cemetery near her studio—a testament to how she transforms her connection to nature into tangible forms. Inga Kerber and her work are intertwined, existing in a constant dialogue between untamed wildness and serene contemplation.
I also recall her collaboration with Corinne von Lebusa for a duo exhibition in a pop-up artist-run space in Leipzig in 2012 or 2013. For this event, the two artists created a unique, handmade book celebrating women’s bodies, femininity, and nature through evocative drawings. A few years later, Inga Kerber returned to drawing, blending it with photography and painting. Her figurative works express her profound relationship with the world as both a woman and an artist. In her new series, she focuses on single ornaments or the female form, driven by an obsession with simplicity and the direct essence of what an image represents.
Her techniques are mixed, incorporating oil, ink, pencils, and pigments. The colors—drawn from earth, skin, and nature—are subdued, never overwhelming. Her surfaces are intentionally worn by time, though that passage of time is precisely curated by the artist. Recently, she has begun working with textiles, transferring her patterns from paper to fabric. These materials, often inherited from her family or found objects—relics of the GDR—carry a deep connection to female history. Among these, she revives old tea towels, particularly those belonging to her grandmother, which she names TAPIS, a French term that reflects her affinity for textiles, figurative motifs, and the human body.
The works presented in Gala strike a delicate balance between singularity and repetition, offering a symphony of textures: the tactile quality of hand-printed analogue photographs, the worn softness of found cotton fabrics, the grain of paper, and, of course, the tangible presence of plants and flowers—pure embodiments of her artistic process.
Inga Kerber’s practice is in full bloom, her work blossoming on the walls of the gallery. Gala, her new show, unites all her artistic skills and presents her oeuvre as a coherent modus operandi. This exhibition feels like an intimate space, a Pandora’s box that the artist opens for us, blending mediums in a non-hierarchical way. Inga Kerber’s world is a gala, a unique event where every moment becomes a celebration. Gala is a muse. Gala is a fête.