‘Despite their abstract appearance, Tschäpe’s landscapes invite us to decipher them by focusing from the start on some of their titles, which can be descriptive. At first, we are struck by the hedonism inherent in their execution, and we celebrate their compositional and chromatic skill. Gradually, however, we glimpse or intuit different elements that are half hidden in the tangle of strokes and brushstrokes: rocks, earth, moss, grass, tree trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, rivers, mountains, valleys, escarpments, stars, clouds, etc. We can even perceive the effects of atmospheric phenomena such as wind and storms, or the way in which variations in light transform the colours.’
E. Juncosa, ‘Janaina Tschäpe: The Inner Landscape’, in Soy mi propio paisaje, exh. cat., Malaga: CAC Malaga, 2023, p. 180
‘Tschäpe is renowned for her versatility in all media she touches, including photography, film, watercolor, casein, oil paint and oil stick. As she has been particularly adept at conjugating painting and poetry, she pushes the fluid boundaries between the self and the natural world (freedom and existence). Her suite To cover the earth with the new mist, composed of nine canvases juxtaposed side by side, stands as a testament to, even an embodiment of, this fascinating pendulum (between self and nature; freedom and existence), whereby the lyrical interplay between imagery and themes echoes not only the poetic spirit of Paz, heralding the vast, interconnected webs of existence, but appears to have been composed on the philosophical partition of Schiller’s Letters on Education.’
J. Pisarro, ‘Fragmented Narratives: Layered Marks and Memories in Janaina Tschäpe’s Vision’, in Janaina Tschäpe, Berlin / New York: Hatje Cantz / Sean Kelly Gallery, 2024, p. 14
‘While aiming to capture the essence of nature, Tschäpe’s work remains abstract, avoiding specific forms that might fall into the “illustrative”. She constructs and deconstructs landscapes from her “photographic database” of natural elements, resulting in abstract landscapes that foster a dialogue, treating the painting as a living entity. Tschäpe’s art transcends traditional depiction, focusing instead on exploring elements like color, structure, rhythm, light, and shadow, alongside the liberation found and gained through lines and spaces, or lines in space. As her painting process accretes webs of lines and forms, fostering new, rich, complex relationships onto and within the canvas, her practice eschews specific scenes like sunsets in favor of abstract elements that convey a sense of freedom and emotion.’
J. Pisarro, ‘Fragmented Narratives: Layered Marks and Memories in Janaina Tschäpe’s Vision’, in Janaina Tschäpe, Berlin / New York: Hatje Cantz / Sean Kelly Gallery, 2024, p. 20
‘Gradually, and without having ruled out a return to photography or video, Tschäpe’s work has focused on painting and drawing, although she has also produced prints and a few sculptures. These paintings and drawings reveal a continuing interest in nature, marine biology and botany, but now show landscapes without figures. The latter tend towards abstraction, at least upon an initial superficial inspection. Their images are dense, pulsating and dynamic, presenting spaces in constant transformation, constructed by means of patches of colour, strokes and superimpositions of images and brushstrokes. The theme of transformation, as we can see, is another recurring feature in the artist’s work. Drawing is also central to the creation of these pieces, and it seems inevitable that Tschäpe would end up working with oil sticks, which allows her to draw with that material directly.’
E. Juncosa, ‘Janaina Tschäpe: The Inner Landscape’, in Soy mi propio paisaje, exh. cat., Malaga: CAC Malaga, 2023, p. 180
‘“To me painting means feeling something right up close, being physically in the present with body and soul. I could never explain to anyone this intimate dialogue with the canvas. My painting doesn’t come from pictures. It arises out of my observations, which can be observations of nature but just as well observations from fantasy; the two always go together for me. I consider everything to have colors. Vowels, tones, numbers, words: I see colors everywhere – that’s always been the case. I endeavor to transfer that into conscious, creative thought, from which I seek to derive my pictures.”’
T. Schäpe quoted in ‘Janaina Tschäpe’, Kuenstler: Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, issue 19, 3. Quarter 2018, p. 1
‘For Janaina Tschäpe, painting is above all an intimate conversation between her and the canvas. Vigorous applications of casein paint, when colored surfaces are juxtaposed in strong mutual contrast, alternate with delicate, “caressing” applications of watercolors which give way in turn to cautious lines done in pencil and forming a delicate meshwork of lines and signs that feel their way across the painted space. Janaina Tschäpe considers this dialogue with the canvas to be an adventure comparable to proceeding in the early morning into the Brazilian mountains, where she lives in a house that she calls her actual home.’
D. Von Drathen, ‘Vocabulary oft he Possible‘, in Kuenstler: Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, issue 19, 3. Quarter 2018, p. 2
‘The pine green is shaped into forms resembling flowing, climbing, proliferating tropical plants; but what seems essential to me is that these forms are always further ramified into delicate, nerve-like tracery, as if free signs had detached themselves from the organicity […]. In Rose Madder, these signs crisscross the colored surfaces, as if they were warning the viewer not to lose himself too quickly in associations with landscapes, while in fact we see only an abstract composition with intensively colored surfaces.’
D. Von Drathen, ‘Vocabulary of the Possible‘, in Kuenstler: Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, issue 19, 3. Quarter 2018, pp. 4–5
‘If today the core of her work is painting, her career began with sculptures that emulated an identity constructed by making use of artifices. In that half of the 1990s, the artist made models of parts of her body out of latex prostheses full of water, building a metamorphosis of herself. Following that, this process of mutation would find form in performances whose destiny was always photography and video, as the artist was never interested in the action happening “live”. What these stages had in common was the creation of a world that escapes the watertight categories, choosing to inhabit the thin line of “The Uncanny”, 3 Freud’s strange / familiar and the presence of a nature always reinvented.’
L. Duarte, ‘Seeking an End Without End…’, in Janaina Tschäpe, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2017, p. 8
‘The possibility of transforming everything into fiction seems to be Janaina’s reason to create. In a certain way, she incorporates life as raw material for her work. Her imaginary is made out of stagings where the artist herself is inserted. She often photographs herself or participates in the performances she carries out, and then records them in film. At other times, she invites friends to “play”: “I want to extend this experience to others and invite them to play with me. When we were children, we enjoyed direct access to the universe of play. I still play of being in all places at the same time.”’
V. D. Bousso, ‘The inflection of reality in the bodies of Janaina Tschäpe’, in Janaina Tschäpe, exh. cat., São Paulo: Paço das Artes, 2006, n.p.
‘On these surfaces the traces of colors and forms become gentle and sensual, intertwining into organic forms in an amorous play between the parts. They are the same transparencies, always changing and indefinite, that range from the fleshly details of hands and feet mediated by the latex in He Drowned in Her Eyes as She Called Him to Follow, 2000, to the watercolors on paper that thrive on inner reflections between the colors and slip gradually into one another, as if to evoke the immersion of art into a vanished continent.’
G. Celant, ‘Tschäpe the Dragon’, in Janaina Tschäpe, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2017, p. 21
Unless otherwise stated:
© Janaina Tschäpe. Photo: courtesy of Janaina Tschäpe Studio
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