INA GERKEN
Somewhere, softly
31 October - 19 December 2026
Opening:
30 October 2026
6-9pm
We are delighted to announce the opening of Somewhere, softly, an exhibition by Ina Gerken, on October 30. This is the second solo exhibition by the German painter, who lives and works in Berlin, at Galerie Anna Helwing.
Ina Gerken belongs to a young generation of painters who combine abstraction and figuration, space and time, to investigate the complexities of human experiences. As the exhibition title Somewhere, softly already suggests, she, however, does not tell stories in the traditional sense. Rather, she creates evocative visual worlds that at times recall Alice in Wonderland and invite a variety of associations, yet elude any unambiguous interpretation. We find ourselves immersed in dreamlike landscapes, surrounded by peculiar plants and ambiguous bodily forms, only to see them dissolve, in the next moment, into colour, gesture and structure.
Gerkens’ paintings appear spontaneous and intuitive, as she works without preliminary sketches or a predetermined concept. Instead, she immerses herself in the open-ended process of painting. She applies paint, wipes and dabs it away, rotates the canvas, and scratches and scrapes its surface. Earlier layers of paint remain partially visible or reemerge. In this way, the surface of the painting captures different moments of the painting process. The painting develops step by step—shaped by accidents and unexpected twists.
Gerken sometimes paints on the floor and works on her canvases from varying positions. Painting thus becomes a physical act that goes far beyond the mere shaping of a surface. Her intense colors, which at times reinforce or clash with one another, create spatial depth and visual tension while simultaneously evoking a powerful emotional response. The flat, transparent application of paint stands in stark contrast to dynamic, sometimes drawing-like, and at times almost calligraphic brushstrokes and dripping. From this tension between gestural immediacy and transparent areas of color—between movement and stillness—an atmosphere emerges in which everything seems to be in a state of flux, yet a meditative calm is also palpable.
Time and again, Gerken collages fragments of wafer-thin silk or Japanese paper onto the canvas. The resulting, slightly crinkled surface texture is reminiscent of skin and lends the works a tactile, almost physical presence. These subtle interventions not only reinforce the physical dimension of the painting but also counter the macho vocabulary of American Abstract Expressionism with a delicate lightness. By making sensitivity and fragility productive elements of her painterly process, Gerken breaks with the notion of the genius, sovereign artistic spirit.
Gerken’s paintings not only reveal echoes of American Abstract Expressionism, they bring together various movements in recent art history into a fresh, contemporary dialogue shaped by today's image saturated world. Whether it is Paul Signac’s rhythmically arranged dots of color, Helen Frankenthaler’s soak-stain technique, Cy Twombly’s gestural brushstrokes, or Per Kirkeby’s earthy color palette—which suggests abstract forest landscapes—these art-historical references remain clearly recognizable without Gerken’s painting devolving into mere appropriation. Rather, she transforms these influences into an independent, unmistakable visual language that, paradoxically, captivates precisely because of its uncompromising artistic nonconformity.
Gerken succeeds in transforming her inner landscapes into visual manifestations, expressing perception through color and materiality. With Somewhere, softly, she leads us into wondrous worlds that ebb and flow between tenderness and vehemence—worlds that reveal themselves less to reason than to intuition. Her illusionistic, psychologically charged compositions invite us to wander through an inner terrain, one that gradually draws us into the depths of our own emotional realms.
In this era of artificial intelligence, and given the growing influence of new technologies on our perception, communication, and sense of belonging, questions about our place in the world are becoming increasingly relevant. As the title Somewhere, softlysuggests, Gerken’s paintings revolve around the idea of home—not in the sense of a clearly definable place, but as an exploration of a sense of belonging and familiarity. In doing so, the focus extends beyond individual experience to the question of how we situate ourselves in reality and which conceptions of the world and home shape our relationship to it. Her paintings open up a visual order in which personal and social landscapes, the natural and the imaginary, come into relation with one another. In the process, the boundaries between the inner and outer worlds are constantly shifting.
Ina Gerken was born in 1987 and she lives and works in Berlin, Germany. From 2014 to 2016 she studied at the Kunstakademie Duesseldorf and was a master class student of Katharina Grosse. In 2023 Gerken was awarded the prestigious Pollock-KrasnerGrant and in 2022, she was selected for the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture’s artist residency program. She has also participated in residencies with the Fores Project, UK (2021) and The Cabin LA, CA (2019), and has received grants from theStiftung Kunstfonds, Germany (2024); Lepsien Art Foundation, Germany (2017); and the Fine Art Collective of Frankfurt, Germany (2016), among others.
Her work has been exhibited at museums and galleries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, most recently at the Museum Reinhard Ernst in Wiesbaden and the Kopfermann-Fuhrmann Foundation in Düsseldorf, furthermore Logomo, Turku, Finland (2023); Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (2023); Stiftelsen Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway (2022); Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (2020); Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany (2020); and Bonn Museum of Modern Art, Bonn, Germany (2019), among others. Gerken’s work is held in the OP ENHEIM Collection, Poland and the collection of the Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Germany, among private collections across the globe.