For Svenja Deininger (b. 1974), painting is a continuous process of coating and uncovering, adding primer, color, and varnish, and then stripping back to raw canvas and opaque areas. Deininger begins with layers of base coats and one abstract form – sometimes a shadow, other times a memory – proceeding almost magically, often without visual brushstrokes or gestural styles. The resulting intimate abstractions have consistently shown the intensity that a painting can have within a larger space, its edges providing the only index for how it was made and its atmosphere created. As if they materialized fully formed, Deininger's paintings masterfully deny all evidence of their making.
Svenja Deininger lives and works in Berlin, Milan, and Vienna.