Tricksters II

Katja Farin

Info: Gaa is delighted to present Tricksters II, a solo exhibition of new work by the Los Angeles-born, London-based artist, Katja Farin (b. 1996). The oil paintings and ceramic sculptures in Tricksters II expand upon pertinent ideas and concepts explored by Farin – principally, the archetype of the trickster as a transient figure able to slide, shift, and slip between the thresholds of metaphorical worlds. Tricksters II represents Farin’s second exhibition with Gaa, and their first solo presentation in Germany. Referenced both contemporarily and historically as a harbinger of transition and change, the trickster enacts a plethora of roles across different cultural, political, societal, and religious structures. An active participant across many of Farin’s compositions, this enigmatic figure encourages and instigates unexpected vicissitudes of existence. Surreptitiously descending the spiral staircase, moving sneakily from one space to another in Spiraling Out, the trickster seems to both tantalize and taunt. Additional reference to Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1533 Tudor painting The Ambassadors underscores Farin’s contemplation of the transition from physical to metaphysical (and back again) – warped perspectives, exaggerated proportions, and distorted visages hint at the ways in which such transformations might delicately dangle death in the face of the viewer while simultaneously offering oblique opportunity for renewal or restoration. (…)