Susanne Kühn: Turtle Quest“- 2024 Solo Exhibition
Press Conference：
2024.11.22 Fri. 2:30pm – 4:30pm
Opening Party：
2024.11.23 Sat. 3pm – 6pm （Opening for public）
Exhibition date：2024.11.2- 2025.1.25
Bluerider ART Taipei·DunRen
1F, No. 10, Lane 101, Section 1, Da'an Road, Da'an District, Taipei City
Tue. – Sun., 10am – 7pm
info@blueriderart.com
T: +886 2 27527778

Susanne Kühn (Germany, b.1969) born in Leipzig, Germany, Susanne Kühn currently lives and works in Freiburg. She studied painting and printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig, as well as at the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College in New York, and was awarded the Radcliffe Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Currently, she teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. Known for her unique fusion of realism, surrealism, and abstraction, Kühn’s works are dominated by exaggerated plants and fantastical flora juxtaposed with architectural or abstract geometric forms. Her art subtly balances humor with serious themes, exploring the tension between nature and constructed spaces. Her work is included in permanent collections including the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), Museum Frieder Burda (Germany), Zabludowicz Art Trust (UK), Schwartz Art Collection of Harvard University (USA), UBS Art Collection, and Deutschen Bundesbank...etc.

Susan Kühn’s style is a captivating blend of realism, surrealism, and abstraction, marked by bold contrasts and complex compositions. Her vibrant, saturated palette creates lush, almost dreamlike scenes. Deeply influenced by art history, Kühn draws from various artistic movements, incorporating themes, techniques, and aesthetics that she reinterprets within a contemporary context. She takes inspiration from classical landscape and still-life traditions, weaving in elements of her signature surreal and abstract styles. Using Renaissance techniques of perspective and spatial composition, she layers her works with depth, guiding viewers into a world where vivid, dynamic scenes invoke a precise yet dreamlike illusion. Her oversized plants echo the detailed botanical studies of historical still lifes but break from tradition, symbolizing nature’s resilience in an urbanized world. The integration of architectural elements and geometric forms reflects modernist and Bauhaus influences. By blending rigid structures with flowing natural lines, she creates a harmonious visual experience that feels both familiar and refreshingly new.

Susan Kühn’s work features subtle, often ironic humor that gently challenges viewers’ perceptions and expectations. This humor is evident in her clever use of scale and juxtaposition, where exaggerated natural forms and surreal landscapes contrast with precise architectural elements, humorously highlighting humanity’s attempts to control or coexist with nature. Her humor further emerges in the seemingly incongruous placement of objects, creating a whimsical, dreamlike quality that adds lightness to the philosophical undertones of her work.

Intrigued by the relationships between science, nature, and art, Kühn frequently references artificially cultivated flowers like pansies and orchids, portraying them with anthropomorphic qualities. Her plants take on human characteristics, as though flowers were imitating people and vice versa. Her botanical studies draw inspiration from 17th-century Dutch flower painting and European still lifes from the 16th to 18th centuries. Additionally, her work pays homage to German scientist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian, a 17th-century pioneer in botanical illustration. Art historian Dr. Heidi Brunnschweiler notes, “Kühn explores the potential of virtual reality for new forms of pictorial thinking. In doing so, she subjects representations of humans and plants and their biological structures to reinvention. Organic forms can take on technoid appearance or grow into human-like beings. At its core, Kühn’s work is committed to precise craftsmanship, which enables her to interlink a wide variety of artistic languages.”

"Susanne Kühn: Turtle Quest" - 2024 Solo Exhibition presents recent works that reflect her exploration of the boundaries between the artificial, the virtual, and the real, and the contributions art can make to AI. Highlights include Turtle Quest, which uses a computer game as a metaphor for these themes, and Smoking Underwater, a portrait of an orchid from Kühn’s studio. In this work, the orchid—painted as if it’s smoking a cigarette—reflects life’s contradictions, as it embodies relaxation and health risks alike. These works, painted in soft pastel colors, create a “cute” yet slightly unsettling artificial world. In Vanity, Barbie-like furniture and a peacock are used to symbolize superficiality and vanity. Observed reinterprets Renaissance architectural structures in playful lavender tones, presenting a humorous world populated by characters resembling Japanese cartoons. Cut provides a glimpse through a dollhouse-like pink structure, evoking a fragmented view of reality.

Susan Kühn’s use of surrealism, collage, and cultural symbols from various eras and domains creates visual and conceptual depth. Like the Renaissance concept of the window framing a narrated landscape, her compositions provide viewers with fragmented narratives that blend contemporary digital experiences with past art forms, encouraging meaningful dialogues across time. Her subtle humor adds layers of depth, balancing philosophical reflection with visual delight. This multifaceted approach makes Kühn’s work both intellectually engaging and visually compelling, resonating with audiences on multiple levels.