Johanna Bath's solo exhibition, Shivers seeks to capture the sensuality in her work, the physical recollection of memory communicated through a hazy encounter with paint. Bath is interested in the experience of time and the countless moments that define our lives. She achieves the sensation of a memory through her unique sensitivity to light and by blurring her paintings. Using a large brush, Bath drags or swipes across the surface of her otherwise figurative works. This gesture recalls the same sensation we might feel on the tips of our skin when triggered by a memory or a feeling, a sense of deja-vu. The effect is a fogginess in her paintings, synonymous with the experience of recalling the past.
Light plays a crucial part in conjuring a memory and like anything that glitters or glows it also has a spiritual sense to it, giving Bath’s paintings an ethereal quality. Her still lives, hands and portraits feel as though they are in a state of motion, slipping in and out of lucidity, never quite allowing you to grasp a moment. This sense of reaching is key in Bath’s practice, reaching for time that moves beyond the present.
In some works, Bath has subtly used spray paint and pigment to shroud her paintings in another layer of haze. She also pays close attention to the crop, directing the eye of the viewer and manipulating the clarity of a memory. Her work attempts to crystallize intangible moments into dreamlike images that linger between the abstract and the visible world, asking us to reach for those memories that can be accessed only through a prism of light or the passing of a shiver.
Johanna Bath lives and works in Hamm, Germany. She was born in Warendorf in 1980 and studied illustration design at the Bildkunst Akademie Hamburg (1999–2002) and painting at the Hochschulefür Angewandte Wissenschaft (HAW), Hamburg (2002–07). In 2022, Bath was selected for the Emerging Artist Programme of 2022 by CAC (Contemporary Art Collectors). She recently exhibited at the Van Der Plas Gallery,New York City (2022); Galleri Nobel, Oslo (2022); Raum 55, Essen (2021), The Split Gallery, London (2022); and Haze Gallery, Berlin(2021); and had a solo exhibition in 2019 at Part2Gallery, Düsseldorf. Bath is currently participating in a group exhibition at Blank Gallery, Shanghai and has an upcoming duo exhibition at Enari Gallery, Amsterdam (April 2023).
