Juliane Noll: At The Wunderwall Antwerp

Educated as an illustrator, Juliane Noll decided to explore new territories in the art of painting during the last years. Noll strives to build up her work like a sculpture. Each brushstroke molds the work as it evolves, while she intuitively proceeds, layer upon layer, the narratives emerge and unfold.

By integrating the dexterities of drawing into her painting practice, Juliane Noll uses obstruction as a base for image-making. Starting without sketches, her works are a quest for possible form, light and perceptions. Her paintings are about careless movement in which the body is brooding. Figures are looking away or into their own daydreams, joining lost efforts of belonging with inner turmoil. There is a focused investigation describing objects of desire, repurposing longing as something safe – like an ornamentalist armour. Strange personas and gloomy backdrops craft a stage for stories of refuge in isolation and the particularity of deformed closeness. Juliane Noll draws inspiration for her rather rough and unpolished paintings from day-to-day experiences and encounters, memories that pop up in her head and the emotional state she finds herself in.

Picture by Paula Guardián