Johanna Seidel
SALAMANDER
JOHANNA SEIDEL
DECEMBER 13, 2024 - JANUARY 25, 2025
GAA NEW YORK
Gaa is pleased to present Salamander, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Dresden-based artist Johanna Seidel. Characterized by her continued interest in the dualistic nature of both lived experiences and perceived realities, these paintings further complement Seidel’s narrative-building practice and augment her ever-evolving canon of characters. Salamander represents Seidel’s inaugural solo exhibition with Gaa and her first in the United States.
“Some stories aren’t meant to be sold
Some words aren’t meant to be told…”
– ‘Salamander’ by Lana Del Rey
At the core of Seidel’s paintings lies a fascination with the inevitability of transformation and change. Each piece presents a message or a scene richly imbued with symbols indicative of metamorphosis. The titular reference to the salamander, a creature whose mythical origin tale proclaims the amphibian’s ability to withstand the detrimental effects of fire and flame, underscores this motif of adaptation or rebirth so integral to Seidel’s work.
Similarly to the ever-adaptable salamander, which can safely survive both on the land and in the water, the protagonists in Seidel’s paintings often exist in narratives crafted to highlight contrasting situations, spaces, and experiences. Juxtapositions of light versus dark, safety versus danger, civilization versus wilderness, and the known versus the unknown are made manifest as one begins to decode the recurrent symbols within these works. Seidel maintains a particular interest in presenting these milieu ambiguously, crafting an open-ended scene that necessitates consideration and interpretation.
An audacious spider becomes contained within a transparent glass jar after trespassing through the open window in A room inside a room, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to vacate the apparent safety of the domestic space and return to the unruliness of the outdoors. An alternative perspective is offered in Dungeons and Dragons, where a young woman sits at the boudoir in her room, contemplating the excitement offered by the airborne animals hovering outside her window – a veritable princess locked inside her castle, longing for the perilous thrill of exploration and the inevitable rescue at the hands of her valiant knight in shining armor. These pictorial worlds, often infused with an air of irony and playful humor, function harmoniously through their portrayal of relatable moments in time, presented in a universal, visual language.
Seidel dexterously depicts her protagonists without any truly identifiable characteristics, seeking to present various archetypal characters to be witnessed, interpreted, and embodied by the viewer. Whether through the shared feeling of anticipation before an exhilarating night out, or in the relaxation and solitude of a warm bath after a long day, Seidel crafts ubiquitous moments in time, steeped in a certain universality and relatable to all.
Developing on her characteristic use of color, light, and shadow, Seidel has painted these new works using a palette of warm, earthy tones – vibrant sienna, ochre, amber, and umber collide with luscious tints and shades of green, with soft pastels of pink, purple, and blue permeating the picture plane. Through this consistency of color, Seidel creates an ambient atmosphere that extends across the entirety of the exhibition space, weaving the overarching narrative from one work to the next.
This cohesive and harmonious color palette subsequently allows Seidel to explore other genres of painting within her predominantly figurative practice, specifically elements of abstraction. This inquiry emerges in a series of minute paintings depicting shooting stars, comets, and other celestial objects. Notably, Seidel’s The third return depicts Halley’s Comet, the famous short-period comet which returns to Earth’s close vicinity every seventy-two to eighty years. Consistent with Seidel’s narrative, Halley’s Comet historically portended moments of great tumult or change; however, such natural phenomena are dually associated with concepts of destiny and beauty. Seidel synthesizes this multifaceted essence in The third return, creating a visual portal through which one might ponder the momentous and the mundane, and truly synthesizing the concepts of transition and change pervasive to her practice.
Johanna Seidel (b. 1993, Sebnitz, Germany) is a visual artist based in Dresden, Germany, whose vivid paintings primarily addresses the subject of nature. Seidel approaches different perceived realities through a lyrical visual language involving symbols from history, mythology, and dreams. Blending dreams and reality allows Seidel to create her own world on the canvas. From a palette in which shades of violet, pink, orange, and green play an important role, Seidel develops stories and still images that exist in an atmospheric space, condensing memories and the imagined into abstract moments that become accessible.
Seidel received her MFA at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions have been held at Gaa, New York, NY; CLC Gallery Venture, Beijing, China; SheBam!, Leipzig, Germany; Artistellar Gallery, London, UK; Kunstverein Meissen, Meissen, Germany; and Galerie Mellies, Detmold, Germany. Seidel’s work has been included in group exhibitions at numerous galleries and institutions including Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz, Germany; Gaa, New York, NY; Pictorum Gallery and Soho Revue in London, UK; C. Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts, Alte Feuerwache Loschwitz, LaSuV, Galerie Stephanie Kelly, Raum für zeitgenössische Kuns, and Zentralwerk in Dresden, Germany; and Phyllis Johnson, Halle14, Alte Spinnerei and Zuständige Behörde in Leipzig, Germany.