Cornelia Baltes

Cornelia Baltes is known for her paintings and installations that oscillate between abstraction and figuration. Gestural lines of corporeal elements such as facial features, hands and feet are painted over solid fields or gradations of bright colour. Charged with a distinct intensity and sense of movement, Baltes’ minimal compositions balance playfulness with subtle detail, where seemingly spontaneous brushstrokes are in fact meticulously applied with highly pigmented paint. Grounded in a lexicon of imagery that conjure the viewer’s personal memories, experiences and associations, Baltes’ paintings morph into a different narrative for each of us. 

 

Cornelia Baltes (b. 1978 in Moenchengladbach, Germany) currently resides and works in Berlin. She received an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2011 and has exhibited at institutions such as The Royal Academy of Arts, London; Chapter Arts Center, Cardiff; Kunsthalle Nuremburg, Nuremburg, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; ICA London; Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm, Germany; Museum Kunst Palast Dusseldorf. In 2015, she had a solo exhibition at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland, United Kingdom. In 2019, Baltes was included in a group exhibition travelling from Kunstmuseum Bonn to the Museum Wiesbaden, the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser and Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Her practice also includes murals and permanent installations, notably at SOSU Silkeborg and Aarhus, Denmark.