Düsseldorf-based Jutta Haeckel may be the most original painter of her generation. Her recent paintings on jute—the strong, coarse, natural fiber that burlap is made of—utilize a series of unorthodox techniques to undermine the physical and conceptual precepts of painting.

For several years, Haeckel has been developing a technique that inverts traditional processes of depiction. Rather than painting a form, she paints the negative space around the form, confounding one’s perception of foreground and background as well as the meaning of “subject.” In her newest work, in addition to her already eccentric process, she applies pigments to the “backside” of the painting, then pushes paint through small gaps in the fabric—extruding it onto the “front”—further subverting the two-dimensional space of traditional painting.

Technically dichotomous—painted from both sides; seemingly gestural, yet quite controlled; at the same time abstract and representational; micro and macro—Haeckel’s paintings are studies in ambiguity. Their Double Nature, she believes, is a reflection of the technological, scientific, social and cultural fluidity of our time.

Jutta Haeckel was born in Hannover, Germany in 1972. She studied at Hochschule für Künste, Bremen, under the tutelage of Karin Kneffel and at Goldsmiths College in London. She has exhibited widely in Germany, including recent exhibitions at the Kunstverein Leverkusen, the Kunsthalle in Recklinghausen and at Schloss Detmold. This is her sixth solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery. A recent catalogue can be purchased by contacting the gallery.

As a counterpoint to Haeckel’s paintings, Hosfelt Gallery will exhibit a group of antique stone objects from the temple gardens of Kyoto. While Haeckel’s paintings can be said to be about flux, the basins, pagodas, lanterns and foundation stones—some dating as early as the Kamakura Period (1185 – 1300)—exude serenity and solidity. These stone objects are shown in association with Mitsui Fine Arts.