Lena Keller (Heidelberg, 1980) belongs to a generation of artists who came of age during the transition from analog to digital, but her painting defies any technological simplification. In her works, the landscape is never a view to be contemplated, but rather a cultural device through which to examine our relationship with nature, memory, and perception. Keller has developed a practice that straddles abstraction and figuration, in which color plays a central role, capable of preceding the word and triggering an immediate emotional response. Her artistic practice engages with the landscape genre as a pictorial field shaped by current socio-ecological conditions and the impact of digital image culture. Rooted in a historical genre that reflects social change, her oil paintings respond to the present state of affairs with a sense of urgency and quiet reflection. Keller, who currently lives and works near Munich, develops her works through processes of mutation and translation, in which image and reference gradually lose their hierarchy and merge into a new pictorial reality. The intrinsic ambiguity of her works offers viewers a point of reference within their own sphere of experience. His works have received numerous awards and have been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and art fairs, including the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and the Museum Kunsthaus in Fürstenfeldbruck. He has held solo exhibitions at the LSS Gallery (New York), Galerie Bayasli (Paris), Kornfeld Galerie (Berlin), and Galerie Heckenhauer (Munich). His works are included in public collections, including the Kunstsammlung des Deutschen Bundestag (Berlin) and the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich. In this conversation with Gabriele Landi, the artist traces the stages of her artistic development, reflects on the meaning of landscape in the contemporary world, and discusses a practice that—without seeking unambiguous messages—invites the viewer to question their own way of inhabiting and observing the world.
GL. For most artists, childhood is the golden age, when the first signs of interest in art begin to emerge. Was that the case for you as well?
LK. Ever since I was little, I’ve been painting, drawing, and creating objects. I loved building miniature worlds out of bits of plants, wood, paper, stones, and wire. When I started school, my notebooks were full of drawings. My parents often took us to interesting places: I remember meeting the Belgian artist Peter Hodiamont in his studio, walking through the gardens of Giverny, or visiting Dalí’s house in Cadaqués, for example.
Did you have an early artistic inspiration?
The first work that made a deep impression on me as a child was Leonardo da Vinci’s *Lady with an Ermine*, a replica of which I saw at a classmate’s house. It left me both perplexed and fascinated at the same time. The depiction of the lady, with its barely perceptible brushstrokes, seemed almost photographic to me, even though it clearly belonged to a distant era. Later, at the Tate, I saw Richard Hamilton’s *I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas *. More than the subject matter, it was the partially concealed methods of its creation that piqued my curiosity. That was the first time I began to reflect on the role of painting in the multimedia age.
What did you study?
I graduated from the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich in 2022 as a Meisterschülerin, after six years of study in Fine Arts/Painting.
Were there any significant encounters during your training?
As a student, I was fortunate to meet a collector who took notice of my work. His encouragement helped me overcome my tendency to judge my own work too harshly. Today, doubt is increasingly becoming a source of growth.
How has your work evolved over time?
My early works were predominantly abstract, perhaps due to a reluctance or inability to clearly define my artistic stance. Currently, my paintings occupy the threshold between abstraction and figuration—a space I find stimulating and productive.
Where do the images you paint come from?
The initial impulse for a work is often a visual impression from my surroundings that resonates on a deeper, more intuitive level.
What is your conception of nature?
There’s an essay by Alexander Kluge on our relationship with nature that I love. It’s titled *Die Sehnsucht der Zellen* (“The Longing of Cells”). Kluge frames longing as a formative principle of life. Human desire might be fueled by an unconscious memory of a lost state of unity with nature, preserved in the body throughout evolutionary time. I like this idea as a perspective that shapes the way I relate to nature as a person and as an artist.
Landscape is a theme with a long tradition in painting and one that frequently appears in your work. How do you approach it?
Landscape is not an objective entity; it is a cultural perspective rather than a neutral view of the world. Consider, for example, the meticulously observed, perspectival landscapes of the Dutch Golden Age. They are completely different from the symbolic and ornamental treatment of nature found in many Middle Eastern artistic traditions. The landscape is an image produced by a society through experience, framing, and representation. And this conception is influenced by the social conditions and environmental realities of its time. I focus on the landscape as a model of perception within the context of our current relationship with nature. What is at stake, and how does it affect us? My reflections revolve around environmental pressures, our alienation from nature, and how technology influences the way we perceive, remember, and construct the concept of nature today.
Are you interested in the painterly aspect?
My subjects are not direct representations of reality. I seek to evoke references to the visual experience of a motif and to trace its underlying tensions and paradoxes with delicacy and sensitivity. For me, painting’s greatest capacity is to convey subtle aspects and emotional registers that go beyond verbal articulation.
How important is the technical aspect in your work?
I belong to a generation that grew up during the transition from analog to digital, shaped by an increasingly fragmented and aestheticized world. I draw on these conditions to construct my pictorial reality. I don’t view them as limitations, but rather as productive elements of my practice.
How important is color in your work?
Even before we see anything, we perceive color. It speaks to us directly, even before conscious thought can intervene. Even when I have a concept in mind, color is the most intuitive element of my painting—the one to which I devote the most space. Shades of color and tonal transitions are a fundamental element in my paintings, as they create connections and define boundaries within the image—or, conversely, dissolve them in ways that challenge visual conventions.
Are you interested in the spiritual dimension?
Not really. I’d describe my outlook as agnostic. The foundation of my practice probably stems from curiosity and exploration.
What role does the studio—understood as the physical space where an artist’s work takes place—play for you?
First and foremost, it’s my workspace. It separates me from the outside world and allows me to concentrate. I can give my work space to breathe, observe it from different perspectives or with a sense of detachment, and understand how the pieces relate to one another. My studio is my sanctuary, where I protect my ideas and my works from pressure and judgment until they’re ready.
When you start a piece, do you already have a clear idea of how it will develop, or is there room for changes along the way?
I draw inspiration from an archive of sketches, texts, and photographs—both found and taken by me. Before I start painting, I create numerous preparatory studies, both on paper and digitally, to give shape to my ideas. Once I begin painting, the process becomes more open-ended, though it remains guided by a clear underlying vision.
Do chance and the unexpected play a role in your work?
I have a strong connection to my intuition. But that doesn’t mean I paint intuitively. Pursuing the vision for a painting requires concentration and perseverance. Chance and the unexpected are characteristic of this medium and add variety to the process, but I don’t actively encourage them. When they occur, they’re stimulating and often push the painting beyond its limits.
Do you work in series, focusing on one painting at a time, or do you create several at the same time?
I don’t work in series, but I do work on several paintings at the same time because of the drying process. This often results in groups of works that are loosely related to one another. For me, these groupings are open-ended formations, whereas I view series as more rigid, thematically fixed structures that I find too restrictive for my way of working.
What kind of dialogue are you seeking with the viewer standing before your works?
I’m not interested in conveying a message or a predefined narrative. Rather, I hope to create a space where viewers can reflect on their own relationship with the world and its challenges. I believe that painting speaks its own language, conveying sensory information through the image and the creative process.
Some artists position themselves on the periphery of their practice; others, such as performing artists, are often at its center; then there are those who view their work from above or below, or vice versa… how do you position yourself in relation to what you do?
The work emerges from my perspective, from the way I perceive the world. Painting allows me to enter and exit that experience, to be involved in it and at the same time to observe it. In that sense, I occupy a shifting position: partly participant, partly observer.
The author of this article: Gabriele Landi
Gabriele Landi (Schaerbeek, Belgio, 1971), è un artista che lavora da tempo su una raffinata ricerca che indaga le forme dell'astrazione geometrica, sempre però con richiami alla realtà che lo circonda. Si occupa inoltre di didattica dell'arte moderna e contemporanea. Ha creato un format, Parola d'Artista, attraverso il quale approfondisce, con interviste e focus, il lavoro di suoi colleghi artisti e di critici. Diplomato all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano, vive e lavora in provincia di La Spezia.Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
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