Helene Appel

The painter Helene Appel (*1976, Karlsruhe, Germany) removes familiar things from their surroundings and places everyday objects in the center of her images. In various formats, between very small and over-dimensionally big, the paintings appear so tangible and real that one can’t escape their presence. It is precisely this that also characterizes the seemingly illusionistic paintings by Helene Appel on raw, untreated linen. They place the viewer in familiar, often random situations that are connected to touch, smell or taste and thus evoke immediate associations with the object. The haptic quality of the works tempts one to touch them, so unlikely does it seem that it is always about paintings on canvas. Each object is presented outside its context on a 1:1 scale, which in turn draws all the attention to the details.

Helene Appels works can be found in reputable collections around the world, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; La Gaia Collection, Busca; Moenchehaus Museum Goslar; Monika Schnetkamp Collection; Kunsthalle Hamburg; Touchstones Rochdale, Rochdale; Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead; Zabludowicz Collection, London/Sarvisalo/New York.