Pia Fries | Berlinische Galerie

Based on the conceptual painting of her Düsseldorf tutor Gerhard Richter, Pia Fries has developed an independent approach to painting.

Her latest works in particular are deliberately situated at the border between abstraction and representation. Almost like a sculptor, she uses color as a 3-dimensional material and reduces the spectrum of colors. The representational character of her painting, which tends towards botanical issues, is also emphasized by fragments of pictures that are included in the paintings. As already in earlier works Fries uses clippings of enlarged illustrations of two publications by Sibylla Merian (1647–1717): New Book of Flowers, and The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars and Their Remarkable Diet of Flowers. These illustrations serve as primary source for gestural color applications that appear to be random structures but have actually ornamental function. These works as well as a large-size painting that was created especially for this exhibition are shown in the main hall. We are very pleased with the jury’s decision and compliment Pia Fries on this award.

The jury: Jörn Merkert, Karin Sander, Angela Schneider, Frank Badur, Trak Wendisch