For HOT MESS, Lexia Hachtmann is exhibiting three figurative paintings.
In her work Hachtmann allows narratives to unfold on and in-between the paintings and the surrounding space. Within the canvas Hachtmann incorporates gestures, objects and idioms in order to invoke association with universal myths. As well as these narratives, Hachtmann focuses on the individual in society and through her painting deals with the dialectic relation between interior and exterior as well as private and public realms. Recurring motifs in her work revolve around social questions of belonging, identity and hierarchy, more specifically themes of isolation, intimacy and play. She explores this on the canvas through her use of ambiguous objects and gestures, which conjure banal yet uncomfortable situations for the viewer to contemplate.
Hachtmann prefers to work from sketches as opposed to photographic templates thus allowing the free translation of line (her drawings) into form (paint) on the canvas. She also detaches colour, a significant characteristic of her work, from its original motif and uses it as a starting point for each body of work. This is often emphasized in the titles of her work. Through this reduction in form and her approach with colour, Hachtmann strives to bring out something essential in the work and engages in the notion of "Non-Finito". The layering of paint allows a creation of space and depth on the canvas, which in turn enables Hachtmann, via her glazing technique, to marry fore- and backgrounds.
Lexia Hachtmann (b. 1993 in Berlin) is a German-British painter based in Berlin. After completing her Art and Design Foundation Year in 2013, in Brighton, England, she went on to study Fine Art Painting at the Universität der Künste Berlin in the class of Mark Lammert, where she received her Meisterschüler Degree in 2021. She is a co-founder of a theater and arts festival in Berlin Festspiele am Plätzensee, and alumna of the 2021 Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt. She has been part of residency programs including PHYSIS, (Greece) and Begehungen, (Chemnitz) and has shown her work in: Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Bucharest; HVW8 Berlin; Galerie Anton Janizewski and CONVERGENCE, curated by KUNZTEN at P145.
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 cm