Canvas in Suspension
Nadine Schemmann, Sophie von Hellermann & Jorinde Voigt
June 12, 2026 – September 25, 2026
A pale violet stain. A lilac shadow. A wash of pink dissolving into yellow light. Moving through the exhibition, one
begins to notice a colour that quietly migrates from one canvas to the next. It appears in different concentrations and
states: absorbed into fabric, suspended within translucent layers of paint, or drifting through landscapes inhabited by
elusive figures. Less a motif than an atmosphere, this spectrum of lilac becomes a connective tissue between the works
of Jorinde Voigt, Sophie von Hellermann, and Nadine Schemmann.
Canvas in Suspension unfolds as a study in transformation. Across the exhibition, the canvas ceases to function as a
neutral support and instead becomes a porous surface through which images emerge, dissolve, and recombine. Figures
hover at the threshold of recognition, colour develops its own internal logic, and material processes remain visible. The
works resist arriving too quickly at certainty. Instead, they occupy a state of suspension: between memory and
perception, structure and drift, appearance and disappearance.
Jorinde Voigt approaches painting through systems of perception, movement, and translation. Observations, texts,
emotions, and structures become painterly propositions that oscillate between notation and image. Her recent
canvases reveal a heightened sensitivity to colour and atmosphere, allowing conceptual frameworks to unfold through
gesture and material presence. Installed amongst them is Batterie, a sculptural constellation of velvet-covered forms
resembling oversized batteries. Rendered in deep violet fabric, the work functions simultaneously as furniture,
sculpture, and pause. Offering a place of repose within the exhibition, it extends the language of the paintings into
space, transforming energy storage into a soft, tactile architecture of contemplation.
Nadine Schemmann’s works emerge from an intimate dialogue with material. Ink, chlorine bleach, oil, seams, folds, and
varying tensions of canvas generate surfaces that appear to grow rather than be composed. Colour accumulates,
withdraws, and leaves traces of its passage. Her paintings often originate in memories of synaesthetic experiences, and
they retain something of that condition: forms are sensed before they are understood. The image does not arrive fully
formed but slowly precipitates from the canvas itself.
Sophie von Hellermann’s paintings begin with stories. Mythology, literature, history, film, and personal memory pass
through the canvas, yet none remain intact. Painted directly without preparatory drawings, her compositions retain a
sense of immediacy and openness. Figures appear as visitors from different temporalities, inhabiting landscapes that
seem equally shaped by recollection and invention. Narrative is never fully resolved; it lingers, shifts, and disperses
like a dream remembered only in fragments.
Like weather systems occupying a shared atmosphere, the works in Canvas in Suspension remain distinct while
continuously affecting one another. Colours migrate. Narratives dissolve into stains. Structures soften into sensation.
What emerges is a common understanding of painting as a process of becoming—one in which meaning
remains momentarily suspended, open to movement, change, and renewed perception.
June 12, 2026 – September 25, 2026
Opening hours: Fridays from 11 – 18 h and
upon appointment.
Artists Biographies
Nadine Schemmann (b. 1977, Solingen) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Cologne International School of
Design and later at the University of Fine Arts Berlin. Her work explores colour, materiality, and sensory perception
through processes involving pigment, fabric, and chlorine bleach. Recent solo exhibitions include Als ich dachte es sei
Luft in St. Matthäus-Kirche, Berlin; Mother Fields at Sommer Salon Zürich, Higher Grounds at Bittel von Jenisch
Hamburg, and Amplitudes at Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden.
Sophie von Hellermann (b. 1975, Munich) lives and works in Margate, UK. She studied at the Kunstakademie
Düsseldorf and the Royal College of Art in London. Known for her fluid and atmospheric painting style, von Hellermann
combines references to mythology, literature, history, and contemporary culture into expansive narrative compositions.
Her work has been exhibited internationally in institutions and galleries including Tate St Ives, the Hepworth Wakefield,
and Kunsthalle Zürich.
Jorinde Voigt (b. 1977, Frankfurt am Main) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Berlin University of the Arts
under Katharina Sieverding and pursued parallel studies in sociology, philosophy, comparative literature, and modern
German literature. From 2014 to 2019 she was Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and since 2019 she
has held a professorship for conceptual painting and drawing at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. Her works are
included in major international collections including the Museum of Modern Art and The Morgan Library & Museum in
New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the British Museum in London, and Kunsthaus Zürich.
The exhibition can be visited every Friday from 11 am to 6 pm and by appointment. For further
information and images, please contact Petra Tomljanovic at info@grieder-contemporary.com or
call +41 43 818 56 07.
