Christine Streuli: Upscape: Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Zahnradstrasse 21, Zurich

With Upscape Galerie Peter Kilchmann is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by Christine Streuli (*1975 in Switzerland; lives and works in Berlin) at the gallery. The exhibition title Upscape is a neologism, a fusion of the words ’up’ and ‘scape’. Scape refers to landscape, backdrop, image, space, and worldview. The adverb or interjection up is directional, pointing upwards or indicating a call to rise, an exclamatory impulse to ascend. Upscape unfolds through new paintings in large, medium, and small formats, works on paper, and a wallpaper which speak of energies, attraction, ecstasy, beauty and simultaneously gesture towards dystopias, destruction, and despair.

"How can I, as an artist in the year 2025, still engage in the practice of landscape painting?"

 

This question, posed by Christine Streuli, forms the conceptual foundation of the exhibition. The works on view interrogate the notion of landscape and the environment, attempting through painterly means to depict what surrounds us as living beings and how this environment is continuously shifting. How can painting, as a medium, represent human- and nature-induced situations and influences—the complex interweaving and layering of plant life, air, water, earth, and energy? In seeking to respond to these fundamental questions, the artist merges concrete symbols, signs and drawings from abstract painting, thereby opening the field of interpretation: a brushstroke becomes a wave, a blot transforms into a globe, a circle suggests the moon, and a color gradient evokes a sunset.

The exhibition opens with the body of work Unpainting—nine small-format, almost monochromatic paintings (each 75 x 56 cm), mounted on wallpaper covering the first two gallery walls. A hue of soft pink and lilac flows from the lower edge of the canvas upwards, gradually fading into an eggshell white. The paintings are characterized by their multilayered nature; the individual motifs become visible particularly through the structure of the layered paint. In Unpainting_08, for example, a pattern reminiscent of dripping paint transitions into one that mimics brushstrokes—or waves? —and from this, organic ornaments, foliage, floral motifs, branches, and a fence-like structure emerge. In Unpainting_02, a wavy pattern evokes a flowing river, and a sun appears to shine from the upper edge of the painting. Christine Streuli employs stencils for her patterns and motifs, while the color gradients are applied using a spray gun. These gentle, subtle works are placed against wallpaper in bold, vibrant hues: feather-like, rainbow-colored structures arranged radially, alongside shattered crystalline formations. The wallpapers depict polar microscopic images of the hormone testosterone. This juxtaposition introduces one of the exhibition’s central thematic layers: the exploration of oppositions. The term testosterone itself is connoted with contradictory associations, representing strength, musculature, heightened libido, courage, power, risk-taking, assertiveness, violence, war, sexism, aggression, and greed.

 

On the other two walls of the first room, a series of medium- and large-format paintings is displayed, rendered in eclectic colors and partially echoing the motifs found in the smaller works. Desert landscapes, sunsets, globes, fractured terrains, and icy sceneries from which plant-like forms emerge can be discerned. These are dystopian landscapes that suggest a world on the brink of implosion or explosion, yet they remain aesthetically captivating and alluring. Compared to the vivid wallpaper behind the nearly monochromatic paintings, the presentation of these powerful, richly colored canvases on the gallery’s white walls creates an inversion. 

This series continues into the second exhibition room. As is characteristic of Christine Streuli’s practice, these works are constructed through multiple layers of paint, diverse painting techniques, and stenciled motifs. In Scape_Desert_01 (250 x 200 cm), for example, a sunset-inspired color palette draws the viewer in, evoking the memory of a warm summer’s day. Pale pink meets rich tones of pink, red, and orange. Wave-like patterns at the bottom of the canvas suggest sand dunes, reappearing as fine black lines that travel up to the center of the composition.

 

The vibrant testosterone motif—seen through polarised light microscopy—reappears in the third room in the series Testo (each 72 x 57 cm, framed), bringing the exhibition to a close. These works on paper are depicting geometric and abstract patterns and are framed using the same inkjet-printed image of testosterone, functioning as a sort of passe-partout. Streuli selected the specific cut-outs of the works on paer based on where they most naturally aligned with the testosterone image. As a result, these cut-outs are never centered and always appear in different locations: color and structure meet their counterparts in color and structure.

 

 

For further informations, please contact: inquiries@peterkilchmann.com