b. 1983, Brilon, DE
Lives and works in Düsseldorf, DE
Jana Schröder is known for a practice grounded in irreducible and frenetic painting techniques. A devoted formalist, she produces paintings which are largely governed by the action of the paint itself, resulting in webs of languid, curling brushstrokes that guide viewers’ roving eyes. Looping brushstrokes contain subtle variations in saturation, producing an effect of depth, like a many-layered web that advances towards and recedes from the viewer. Executed in large scales, with the eye of a meticulous colorist and a keen sense for composition, Schröder’s works recall both the moving, intuitive body and the still, conceptual mind.
Schröder’s practice is a meditation on process and repetition, slowness and speed. Her mazes of variously translucent and shaded coiling lines employ formal repetition to meditative effect. Furthermore, each series consists of a highly refined color palette, usually employing two or three shades. The slowness of her process characterized by experimental discovery also finds expression on her surfaces, which represent meticulously painted moments that might either be understood as negative space or positive shapes, depending on how one approaches the compositions. The deliberation of such moments is contrasted by sections of more frenzied, quickly-applied paint which register the trace of the artist’s decisive hand at work.
Jana Schröder (b. 1983, Brilon, DE; lives and works in Düsseldorf, DE) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the class of Albert Oehlen. Since 2009, she has been the subject of numerous institutional solo and group exhibitions, including at: Aishti Foundation, Beirut; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Gesellschaft für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg; Kopfermann-Fuhrmann Stiftung, Düsseldorf; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden; Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz; Kunstverein Heppenheim; Kunstverein Reutlingen; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Sammlung Grässlin, St. Georgen; Sankt Peter, Cologne; and the Yves Klein Archives, Paris. Gallery presentations include: Skarstedt Gallery, Paris; Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt am Main; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, Brussels and New York; and T293, Rome. Her work is part of the public collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Friedrichs Foundation, Bonn / Weidingen; and Miettinen Collection, Helsinki / Berlin.