Kitty Kraus’ works are characterized by extreme reduction, following the formal language of minimalism and resisting an (over-)abundance of material and narration. Despite this absolute reduction, they occupy and incorporate the entire space, making it part of the works. The clarity of the pieces often possesses an ambivalence that unfolds only gradually due to the unusually minimal posits that they are. They unite hardness, even aggressiveness, with a fragility that frequently reveals itself as a moment of threat to the viewers, but also to the works themselves. The formal stringency is additionally accompanied by a poetic condensation that owes to the associative space that the works open up—despite, or because of, their reduction. This poetic and metaphoric level can best be described as referring to extremely fundamental physical and psychic aspects of (human) life. Kraus’ works usually carry out a process, they are in motion and vacillate between permanence and temporality, in which they convey the potentials that arise when conditions and states change.

For her show at Halle für Kunst, Kitty Kraus has developed an installation in which she works with light and space. The light draws lines on the walls, thus marking the room and imbuing it with a specific atmosphere. As structures placed under or on tables and reminding one of architecture models, the light sources are not only light sources but, like the room itself, housings. Rooms offer protection, but also include and exclude. They can become constricted, open up or even be blasted. If one develops the idea of the room further, lines emerge that by no means refer only to physical but also to mental structures and architectures.

– curated by Stefanie Kleefeld

The annual program at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg is generously supported by Land Niedersachsen, Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg and Hansestadt Lüneburg. The education program is supported by Land Niedersachsen.

The exhibition was made possible with support by Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and Hansestadt Lüneburg.

Works by Kitty Kraus (*1976 Heidelberg) have been presented at CAC, Vilnius (2016), Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2013), Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2012), Fundacja Galerii Foksal, Warschau (2012), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2011), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (2010), Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009) and Kunsthalle Zurich (2009) amongst others.