With Materie unter Materie (matter among matter), Jarmuschek + Partner presents the latest works by Malwine Stauss. The beings the artist creates in her watercolors and glazed ceramics are angels, people, snails, shells, plants, and fantasy figures. Some of them seem to come from a mysterious shared world filled with water and beaches.

In Malwine Stauss’s paintings, living beings as well as materials and objects are given their own space; they are not merely background elements but are actively and visibly important to the bigger picture. They allow the viewer to empathize with states of being, emotions, and movements. A woman runs and struggles, wrestling intimately with a yellow angel. As if time were standing still for a moment and only energy were flowing, she looks into his eyes and, in the next image, is herself seen by him. On the beach, she lets herself fall naked into the sand and sinks into it. She goes swimming and lets herself glide into the depths, disappearing completely, seeming to dissolve and merge with the water.

Every character in Malwine Stauss’s work, has a distinct personality and brings with them a story, whether small or large. And this is no coincidence: they are part of a story whose narrative is not yet clearly laid out before us—perhaps not yet. In their abstraction, fragility, and delicacy, each of the figures and visual worlds achieves even more: they captivate us and, with their friendliness and approachability, encourage us to put ourselves in their shoes and, in turn, to merge a little with our own surroundings—to remember how a forest smells, how sand feels on our feet, or water all around our bodies. Embracing the idea that one is “merely” a part of the whole—simply matter among matter—may seem daunting or, as a form of connection to the world, feel wonderful and enticing.

Inspired by the writings of Ursula K. Le Guin, Robin Wall-Kimmerer, and Bruno Latour, Malwine Stauss awakens in the viewers of her works a sense of empathy and the need to consciously engage in exchange and connection with the world as human beings. In doing so, she subtly fosters a process of transcendence: moving beyond self-centeredness to ultimately return to a more intense state of being human—as part of everything and in interaction with everything. With a great spirit of experimentation and freedom in her use of materials, Malwine Stauss creates utopian visions that are both accessible and substantial—visions that do not exclude or marginalize, are neither religious nor dogmatic, but are simply human in the best sense of the word.

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MALWINE STAUSS (born in 1993 in Dresden) studied graphic design at the HGB Leipzig from 2013 to 2019, where she earned her diploma in the illustration program under Prof. Thomas M. Müller. In 2019, her work was selected for the curated special exhibition “Academy POSITIONS” at the POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair. Since then, Malwine Stauss has published her distinctive watercolors in several of her own books (including “THE TRIP” published by Colorama in 2020, “HEXEN” in 2021, and “SOLA” in 2022 published by Rotopol), in magazines, and as part of numerous other book projects. While her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions and at art fairs, Malwine Stauss has also been featured in interviews and invited to serve as a guest lecturer at the HFG Karlsruhe. She lives and works in Berlin and Leipzig.

Her latest book will be published next year by Rotopol. The watercolors in this second solo exhibition at Jarmuschek + Partner gallery will be part of this book.