Schwartzsche Villa | Pretty Gray Souls

I am standing infront of a clear, blue, starlit sky. It's a rare sight – but, in this case, that doesn't exactly make it beautiful. "I was distraught the first time I looked at it" says Doris Fürstenberg, director of the Schwarzsche Villa and Kulturamt Steglitz. Fürstenberg is referring to a piece called "Elektroschock" by the artist Ewa Finn Paszkiewicz, a graduate of the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts) in Berlin. Paszkiewicz's work is featured alongside pieces by Ola Eibl, another former University of the Arts student at an exhibition at the Villa, both Eibl and Paszkiewicz received "Meisterschüler" honors at UdK, an award given out to selected art students upon completion of their first exam.  

Most of the pictures at the exhibition are very gloomy. "You feel like you're getting sucked in," says Fürstenberg. But that doesn't mean that the artists lack humor. "Ziemlich graue Seelen" (pretty dark souls) manages to capture the Uncanny in color. The title also reveals a hint of irony in its creators' minds.

But not everything drips in gloom at Schwartzsche Villa. Paintings like "Die Welle" (the wave), with images of colorful steam and bright locks of hair provide specks of light in a room full of gray.

(mapu)