HELENE APPEL

Helene Appel creates images that straddle the threshold between realism, sculpture and abstraction. Painting on a 1.1 scale, she uses different techniques to allow the close emulation of each individual subject she paints. The materials she uses, such as oil, watercolour or encaustic, start to resemble the object itself, giving the painted object a physical and three-dimensional presence.

Depicting ordinary material from everyday life, Appel’s work sees the inherent aesthetic qualities of different objects including the bark of a tree, a seashore, an envelope, the headlight of a car and the loose fold of fabric. Whilst never avoiding the less pleasant details of domestic life, we may also encounter discarded vegetable peelings ready to be thrown onto the compost pile or a kitchen sink full to the brim of murky washing up water.

Through the process of painting, the artist activates the objects she portrays, empowering them with a sense of autonomy or agency. In this sense, Appel’s paintings can be understood as portraiture, where the objects depicted belong to their own non-anthropocentric world

This exhibition features key works from Appel’s career alongside a selection of new paintings, made specifically for and inspired by the streets of Rochdale. Helene Appel lives and works in Berlin, Germany.