HAMBURG.- Fabrik der Künste opens “Beneath the Surface”, an exhibition by German artist and photographer Monika Barth, today, bringing together a body of work that moves between abstraction, memory, sensory perception, and quiet observation.
On view from June 26 through July 12, 2026, the exhibition is presented as part of Fotosommer, accompanying the festival program of the 9th Triennial of Photography Hamburg 2026. The opening reception took place on Thursday, June 25, with remarks by Dr. phil. Belinda Grace Gardner, art and literary scholar, lecturer, and curator.
At the heart of the exhibition is Barth’s series “Beneath the Surface,” a group of photographs rooted in the artist’s close observation of a familiar biotope near her own surroundings. Rather than presenting nature as a distant landscape, Barth turns her attention to the subtle marks, reflections, cracks, and traces that often go unnoticed. Through her lens, these fragments become poetic visual spaces where the outer world and inner feeling seem to meet.
The exhibition reveals Barth’s long-standing interest in the fragile border between what is seen and what is sensed. Her photographs do not simply document a place; they invite the viewer to slow down and look again. Surfaces become layered, reflections suggest hidden depths, and details acquire an almost meditative intensity.
Over the course of her photographic practice, Barth has developed a visual language that combines atmospheric delicacy with a precise eye for reality. Her images have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad, and this latest presentation offers a broad view of her evolving artistic concerns.
Alongside the title series, “Beneath the Surface” also includes works from several other cycles, among them “MONA L,” “LA LUNGA STRADA,” and “PRÈSENCE ÈTERNELLE,” as well as earlier series.
In “LA LUNGA STRADA,” Barth creates what might be described as a photographic diary. Made between 2018 and 2020 in Italy, Ukraine, Norway, and Costa Rica, the images unfold as a personal journey through landscapes, human encounters, cultural symbols, and moments of spiritual or political resonance. The series reflects on faith, love, hope, and death, offering a subjective but deeply engaged view of the contemporary world.
With “MONA L.,” Barth brings the iconic figure of the Mona Lisa into the present. Pairing spontaneous portraits with urban and landscape motifs from Hamburg and its surroundings, she creates new visual dialogues that feel at once familiar and unexpected. The result is a series that gently questions how images travel through time and how faces, places, and cultural memory continue to speak to one another.
Barth’s biography adds another layer to her photographic work. Before turning fully toward photography, she trained as an actress in Berlin and appeared in numerous productions at state and independent theaters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She also worked in film and television, including roles in “Tatort” and “Großstadtrevier.” At the same time, her studies in medicine and her years as a physician in Hamburg shaped a way of looking that is both analytical and empathetic.
That dual perspective—attentive, emotional, and precise—runs through “Beneath the Surface.” The exhibition asks viewers to consider what lies below appearances: in nature, in images, in memory, and in the act of looking itself.
“Beneath the Surface” is on view at Fabrik der Künste, Kreuzbrook 10/12, 20537 Hamburg, through July 12, 2026.
