Astrid Köppe PRETTY SHINY STUFF

Gallery Sekiryu is pleased to present Astrid Koppe's second solo exhibition in four years, focusing on her latest drawings, at two venues: Aoyama, Tokyo and Matsumoto, Nagano.

Astrid Köppe (born in Köthen, Germany, 1974) has been creating delicate drawings of mysterious beings captured by her inner eye on A4 paper since 1999, without changing her format. Her creative process is reminiscent of early botanists who meticulously observed and accurately depicted new plant species in botanical illustrations.

Based on this drawing approach, Köppe explores different dimensions and scales through enamel works, which involve firing glassy glazes onto metal panels, and through installations that add a twist to everyday objects.

Regardless of the style, what unites her work is a pleasant sense of bewilderment and a ticklish humor. These qualities are distinctly Köppe.

Astrid Köppe
Astrid Köppe, born in 1974, is a contemporary artist based in Berlin. Her recent solo exhibitions include "Pretty Shiny Stuff" at Arte Giani (Frankfurt, 2023) and MAYA FRODEMAN GALLERY (formerly Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson, USA, 2022), "konfabulasi" at Gallery Sekiryu (Tokyo and Nagano, 2020), and "Spontaneous Paradise" at Galerie Inga Kondeyne (Berlin, 2020). Köppe has also featured in group exhibitions like "Images in Fashion – Clothing in Art" at the Berlinische Galerie (Berlin, 2022) and "Chaosmos 6 – Silent Spring" at the Sakura City Museum of Art (Chiba, 2021). Her works have been shown extensively across Europe, the United States, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Public collections holding her works include the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, the Berlinische Galerie, and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, among others. In 2021, she published an art book titled "Pretty Shiny Stuff" through Galerie Carolyn Heinz in Hamburg.

Works by Astrid Köppe