Painted fragments of life

The paintings, which at first glance appear rigid and austere, reveal an unexpected dynamic: the line and its seriality is at the center of Anja Mamero's paintings, but no two lines are the same. When approaching the works, the rigid overall impression crumbles, the lines carved with a knife are of varying thickness and fragile. This reveals the lively surface structures of the paintings. In contrast to the early grey and white paintings, Mamero's more recent works are increasingly multi-colored. In them, the artist, who lives in Kiel, explores her own important childhood memories. They are represented by figures in the backgrounds of the paintings, which are enveloped and overlaid by lines. »The memory is almost forgotten, but it still leaves traces or scars. It is only a fragment of the whole story and that is what the pictures show«, explains Mamero. As an example, she mentions the experience of standing on the 5-meter diving platform as a child, looking down over the edge and feeling the height. Mamero's pictures invite viewers to recall their own memories. On March 1, her exhibition LINE UP II opens at the »Alte Post« town gallery in Westerland on the island of Sylt. The artist will be presenting around 20 works there until March 15.

The Hamburg-born artist studied industrial design and graduated from the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel. Her previous exhibitions have taken her to Lübeck, Berlin, Hamburg and the Danish cities of Kolding and Augustenborg, among others. Mamero, who is participating in the Art.Salon artist program, creates her works in interaction with the painting itself: she applies the colors in many layers, whereby the work constantly changes, rediscovers itself and takes different directions. The unpredictable is part of the artist's creative process.