GROUNDING: Anouk Lamm Anouk & Denise Rudolf Frank

Pablo’s Birthday is pleased to present GROUNDING, featuring the works of Anouk Lamm Anouk (b. Austria) and Denise Rudolf Frank (b. 1993, Vienna, Austria). The duo exhibition explores the visual expression of feeling and emotional exchange one has with the canvas. Whether it be during the painterly process or the ensuing viewer’s interaction with its contents, the artist’s canvas has the power to break emotional barriers, find calm in anxiety, indulge in elation, or conjure anger and sorrow– perhaps all at once. What Anouk and Denise put into and onto the canvas can be felt rather than simply seen; grounding the viewer with a safe and open space for emotionality.

The striking visual dichotomy presents a spectrum of feeling; on one side Anouk’s minimal, muted canvases imprint a calm and focused– perhaps melancholic serenity and on the other and the juxtaposition of Frank’s turbulent colors and thick, chaotic impasto which put forth an awesome vibrancy and exuberance. The exhibition invites participation from the audience’s deepest emotions and offers a space of insightful contemplation. Opposite one another, they ask, if not force, the viewer to confront one’s inner truths. While Denise Rudolf Frank has collaborated with Pablo’s Birthday since 2021, this will be Anouk Lamm Anouk’s first exhibition with the gallery and first exhibition in the United States.

Anouk Lamm Anouk’s practice revolves around the mere beginnings of a raw linen canvas. The minimal canvas, which comes through in all of their paintings, and limited color palette of earthly tones, produce a visual dialogue founded upon their manifesto, “no age, no gender, no origin.” The practice is embedded with their principles, “emptiness is the foundation of fullness, that nothing is everything; emptiness as the basis of the fullness/richness of being, the void as the ultimate non-space.” These non-spaces in Anouk’s practice, are– in Anouk’s words– portals into something else and should ground and help viewers dwell in the moment, anchored to the here and now, leaving behind the digital and its distractions to create worlds of images that invite viewers to linger. Anouk’s motifs aim to conjure peaceful spaces for contemplation with a strong undercurrent of desire. The sparsity and graceful arrangements on the canvas offer a space of meditation for themselves and the ultimate viewer. Two of Anouk’s series are presented here; “Lesbian Jazz” and “post/pre”. Both employ the raw linen canvas as foundations anchored in these “non-spaces.” Lesbian Jazz transfers jazz into abstract painting rendering scenes of lesbian visibility. The works are created intuitively and directly on the canvas; a spontaneity and intuition that is also attributed to jazz. The bodies are often female*, genderless/androgynous, and nearly anonymous. The works allow viewers to interrogate deeper into themes of sexuality, sensuality, and self; an intimate exchange with the canvas before them.

For Frank, the opposite is true; bright colors, with an excess of paint and vibrancy and the thickness of the impasto technique are testament to her inner emotions. Frank loads her work with energy by applying her paint directly onto the canvas with her hands. Like an explosion, the chaos of color and charged physicality in her work, ground for emotionality for the viewer and their experiences. Strangely toeing the line between abstraction and figuration, Frank’s colorful compositions reflect fantastical explorations of inner emotional dialogue fed by the inner workings of her own mind and body. Frank’s roots of her practice are tied to art therapy origins.

Since she was three years old, Frank has explored the interconnectedness of art and therapy. In this way, her paintings act as a visual diary. Frank’s paintings combine imaginary colors and figures as an introspective translation of her state of mind. While she sees her practice as a personal outlet– combining imaginary colors and figures as a way of interpreting innermost emotions and working through feelings and sensations– she also asks viewers to participate in her work. Rather than understanding Frank’s work, it should be felt. The vibrancy and intensity of Frank’s paintings are meant to encourage reflection, both externally and internally for the viewer. 

Balancing on a similar edge of abstraction and figuration Anouk and Frank take us to our innermost being. The balance of contrasting visuals and complimentary concepts and themes allows the exhibition to unfold human feeling, the complexity of human emotion, imagination, and interpretation. From calm to chaos, from serenity to jubilation, Anouk and Frank explore their own minds on the canvas as well as make room for viewers to interrogate their inner minds and feelings. Opposite one another, the works presented in GROUNDING encourage interpretation, evoke emotional, and invite visceral reaction.