Known for her large-scale, dynamic paintings of female subjects, Ella Kruglyanskaya works primarily from her own drawings, trying to capture the immediacy of direct marks on paper. This activity is the starting point for a new body of work that engages with her own production process, raising questions about the nature of and possibilities for painting as a media.

It Works on Paper will present over 15 new paintings on canvas alongside a selection of drawings, some of which are the subject of her larger painted works. Whereas many of Kruglyanskaya’s earlier paintings captured an atmosphere of leisure, this latest body of work and her title for this exhibition signals a focus on labour that is explored in relation to femininity and gender roles. Images of motherhood or creative struggle are accompanied by visual puns and a wry sense of humour that is characteristic of Kruglyanskaya’s work. Categories such as portraiture, the female nude or still life painting are collapsed in a series of trompe l’oeil studies that devote equal attention to the scraps of masking tape, shadows and torn holes at edge of the paper as the drawing upon it.

The exhibition is Kruglyanskaya’s first solo exhibition in Germany. It is generously supported by Stiftung Kunst der Sparkasse in Bonn and the exhibition opening is sponsored by Ale-Mania and Reverchon.

Ella Kruglyanskaya (b. 1978, Riga) studied painting at Cooper Union in New York and Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. She has held exhibitions at Tate Liverpool; Tramway, Glasgow (both 2016); The Power Station, Dallas; Studio Voltaire, London (2014) and White Columns, New York (2011). Her work is also currently exhibited as part of the Baltic Triennial (2018) in Vilnius.