Kerstin Brätsch's (1979, Hamburg, DE) work is 'about extending painting'. By exploring various media, she questions painting from different points of view. Brätsch examines the limits of the material in order to bring it into dialogue with contemporary painting. In the works Fossil Psychic for Christa (both 2020), Brätsch applies the 17th century Italian technique stucco marmo. Pigments are mixed with wet plaster and glue and then polished to imitate marble or other rare stones. Brätsch’s works evoke not only brush strokes, they essentially appear as fossils, storing time and history.
Brätsch lives and works in New York (US). She studied Fine Arts at the Universität der Künste, Berlin (DE), with Prof. Lothar Baumgarten and at Columbia University, New York. In 2019 Brätsch completed the site specific installation Fossil Psychics for Christa for The Museum of Modern Art’s Terrace Café, New York. Solo exhibitions include Fondazione Memmo, Rome (IT) and Museum Brandhorst, Münich (DE). In 2017, she was awarded the second edition of the Edvard Munch Art Award. In 2019, Brätsch received the Villa Romana Residency in Florence (IT) with her collective KAYA and most recently she was awarded the Helen Frankenthaler award for painting from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York, as well as the Günther Peill Preis, Düren (both 2020). Her work will be part of the upcoming Venice Biennale curated by Cecilia Alemani.