Sylke von Gaza

(German, born 1966)

Sylke von Gaza is a contemporary German artist. Throughout her oeuvre, the image of the veil, which functions as a metaphor for the sublime and for permeability, is a recurring motif. "I am liberating myself from the cliché of art in order to work towards the essence of painting," the artist has explained. Some of her best-known series include Grey Veil Paintings, Red Veil Paintings, and Early Works. Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1966, she went on to earn an engineering degree before she became a student of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. There, she became particularly interested in Abstract Expressionism and the work of the Old Masters. She was also awarded the title “Meisterschülerin” (2002–2007) and studied under the Irish painter Sean Scully. Von Gaza’s important museum shows include in “Behind the Curtain: Concealment and Revelation since the Renaissance” at Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf. At the invitation of the Seminario Patriarcale di Venezia, von Gaza was created the project Il Nido. A Pilgrimage towards Equilibrium for the Padiglioni Paralleli in the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute to coincide with the 57th Venice Biennale 2017.