About

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” Aristoteles

Kerstin Grobler [KUGA] is a contemporary artist based in Germany – intermittently she works in Switzerland.

She grew up at the edge of the Alpes in Bavaria/Germany. Although dedicated to art from her early years, Grobler first studied natural sciences with a PhD degree. After long-term residences in the USA, Switzerland and the Netherlands she moved to Duesseldorf/Germany.

Finally she followed her inner call and started a professional artistic education. 2019 she graduated at the Free Academy of Fine Arts in Duesseldorf. Regularly she participates in art classes of Prof. Markus Lüpertz to have an intensive discourse about her works.

Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally in European countries at galleries, museums and International Art Fairs. Quite a few catalogues have been published.

Grobler’s preferred subject is nature in all of its facets. The inspiration for her paintings arise directly in front of her eyes during her study trips through Europe. Let it be the Mediterranean or Atlantic zones, the hot Provence, the Alpes or the barren landscapes of Scandinavia.

Recently, figurative themes have returned to the focus of her paintings. The starting point of these projects is urban life in her surroundings.

 

Grobler prefers an expressionistic style,  painting with colour pigments on special primed or un-primed canvas.

 
 

About Kerstin Grobler Milano 2025

MyMicroGallery is pleased to announce “Abstract Nature: The Magic Unveiled,” the first solo exhibition in Italy by German artist Kerstin Grobler.
The exhibition brings together a selection of twenty-four works by the artist, who in these works reinterprets the dynamics, forms and suggestions of nature through abstract language.Far from imitating the real, the works in the exhibition capture the essence of the natural world, transforming it into vibrant, vivid colors, contrasting with the more sedate, calm-breathed tones, alternating light with dark, fluid forms with denser backgrounds. With brushstrokes and shapes, Grobler synthesizes terrestrial, aerial and aquatic landscapes, evoking the invisible pulsing of subterranean and surface life. Each work invites visitors to immerse themselves in an emotional and contemplative journey, discovering the magic hidden in the most imperceptible details of our world. This concept is rooted in the human being’s ability to glimpse patterns, emotions and meanings in even the most seemingly chaotic phenomena, revealing the subtle magic behind shapes, colors and textures. An abstract work inspired by nature does not seek to represent it, but to recreate its essence: the infinite possibility of interpretation itself becomes part of the magic. Each viewer reads something different; each associates the images with memories, with singular experiences.In nature, nothing is truly random, even if its design is complex and unpredictable. Abstract art becomes a reflection of this, synthesizing the inherent beauty of organic structures. Distilling these impressions, through painting, is Kerstin Grobler’s goal.For the artist, using pigments means feeling color as primordial energy. Color is no longer just a visual quality, but a vibration that pulses with the memory of the earth, the mineral, the vegetable. It reveals the special connection between nature and abstraction, as the result of a dialogue between the visible world and our inner depths, an enchantment that reveals itself in all its beauty, only to those who are free from rigid and pre-established patterns and interpretations.

Kerstin Grobler lives in Germany and occasionally works in Switzerland. She grew up on the edge of the Alps in Bavaria/Germany. She holds a degree in natural sciences. After long stays in the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands, she moved to Duesseldorf. She eventually followed her inner calling and started a professional art education. In 2019, she graduated from the Free Academy of Fine Arts in Duesseldorf. She regularly attended Prof. Markus Lüpertz’s art classes to have an intensive talk about her works.

Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally in European countries in galleries, museums and international art fairs. Several catalogs have been published.

Grobler’s favorite subject is nature in all its facets. The inspiration for her paintings comes directly before her eyes during his study trips in Europe, in the Mediterranean or Atlantic areas, in warm Provence, the Alps or the arid landscapes of Scandinavia.

Stefania Carrozzini

 

 

 

About Kerstin Grobler by Mathias Beck

I don‘t think about anything when I paint,
I see colours.
Paul Cézanne

 

The painter has probably been exploring landscape since the beginning of her artistic career. The landscape serves her as a kind of memorial, a memory book, with the help of which she explores through painting what could, should and will remain in our memories. She seeks to embody the idea that is linked to the memory of landscape without creating realistic views with her brush. Rather, they are shadow images, comparable to blurred memories. What remains are colour formations and landmarks that create energies that draw us into the painter‘s pictorial world and provide us with a point of reference, as it were, from which we can remember a particular landscape.

 

For me, Kerstin Grobler is someone who explores the painterly as a meditation surface and meditation mirror, the great calm breath, dream and premonition. In her paintings, she shows that great feelings always need to be underpinned with gentleness, otherwise they remain immature. In these paintings, she works with rhythm and creates panel paintings ranging from dancing to playful to airy, monolithic to gravitational to dramatic and precise to foreboding from colour and light-dark surfaces of a remembered landscape.

 

These pictures are also intended to think or make us think, albeit in a fundamentally cheerful and relaxed mood. The fact that Kerstin Grobler masters this balancing act between cautiousness and determination is what creates the light inhalation and exhalation with which we encounter her pictures.

 

It is therefore about an experienced, not a present landscape. Experienced landscape instead of present landscape means that we encounter Kerstin Grobler‘s pictures emotionally charged and demanding a presence of their own. (…)

 

Experienced landscape in this way of painting – to say something briefly about this aspect – also means, considering her approach to her work, her intellectual position as an artist, that she wants to force us to look at her as a fellow feeling. Kerstin Grobler seeks intellectual overpowering, and in this she follows Paul Cézanne or Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Her art is therefore: nature, seen through a strong temperament.

 

Nature is always the same, but nothing of its visible appearance remains the

same. Our art must give it the sublime of duration, with the elements and the

appearance of all its changes. Art must lend it eternity in our imagination.

What is behind nature? Nothing, perhaps. Perhaps everything.

Paul Cézanne

 

Paul Cézanne:

Changed the way paintings were composed. He emphasised the structure and basic geometric shapes in his paintings and distorted the perspective to create a new understanding of space and form.

Was a master of colour and texture. He used colour not only to depict objects, but also to emphasise their depth and dimension. His subtle use of colour variations gave his paintings a unique atmosphere and depth. Known for his depictions of landscapes, he had a deep connection to nature and sought to capture the essence of what he saw by simplifying shapes and colours while emphasising their beauty and power. Had an enormous influence on modern art in the 20th century. His experiments with form, colour and perspective inspired numerous artists and art movements, including Fauvism, Cubism and Expressionism.

Overall, his painting has had a lasting impact on the art world and his innovative approaches and techniques have influenced generations of artists.

Used colour not only to depict the outward appearance of objects, but also to capture their spatial structure and their relationship to their surroundings. He subtly modulated the colours by using different shades and tones to create light and shadow and emphasise the shapes of objects.

 

Ernst Wilhelm Nay:

Was known for his use of colour and form to create abstract compositions that often do not depict recognisable objects, but rather use an abstract visual language to express emotions and ideas.

In this sense, he was less interested in depicting the external world or creating an illusionistic depth.

Used colour to create depth and space in his paintings, albeit in a more abstract way than Cézanne.

Experimented with colour contrasts and modulations to create visual tensions and movements that attracted the viewer‘s attention and drew him into the picture.

 

Colour modulation:

Refers to the use of colour to create volume, depth and space in a painting. Creates an illusionistic depth on the canvas that allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the painting and experience a spatial dimension.

Instead of simply using colours to fill shapes, they were used to define the structure and volume of the objects depicted.

It enabled a new visual language that not only depicted the external world, but also revealed a deeper truth about its structure and its relationship to the viewer.

Mathias Beck 2024

(translated by Michelle Sturm)