BERLIN.- For the second installment of its online exhibition series, Galerie Michael Janssen presents a solo exhibition by artist Jana Cordenier titled “Watercolours.” This exhibition is the artist’s second showing with the gallery, who debuted last year with her solo exhibition “Paradise.” Eponymously, “Watercolours” presents a selection of four watercolors on paper, which are on view for the first time. The works were painted over the course of a year from 2019 to 2020.

Cordenier’s large scale watercolors contain interpretations of the artist’s surroundings: landscapes and nature of the South of France and Belgium, whose colors and impressions the artist records en plein air. The paintings bear traces of the artist’s investigations, collections of leaves, flowers, branches, and stones gleaned from ambulatory promenades. The artist creates these drawings in-situ by spreading blank sheets of paper directly on the ground, allowing the elements to percolate on the sheet. Amidst nature and in isolated repose, Cordenier precisely and immediately makes her mark: one that is both fluid and delicate, but also bold.

On the act of drawing, the artist writes that “it is an attempt to approach a pure moment, which is ever-changing.” Similarly, the works on view capture this task of pining the vastness of nature down to the singular, its essence. Cordenier cites Cy Twombly and James Ensor as influences, hinting towards where she gets her prowess for gesture and movement that “starts with the feet and flows into the hands.” Likewise, Cordenier’s paintings hint towards an inner world, one that is activated by sensing the chaos of the outside through line, color, and the tear of the paper.

“Watercolours” opened on Friday February 19th and be on view online at the gallery’s website until March 27th. A walk-through video will guide the viewer through the exhibition, granting access to the four new works.

Text: Vanessa Gravenor