2025

Berlin School of Fine Art and Design

A statement on pausing to reflect without losing consciousness.

Freedom, language and pausing time: capturing it.

The moment is captured whilst retaining the essence of timeless eternity.

To leap and find security in the fall.

The canvas, the wood, the paint, the material keeps everything open until the moment of action.

Now the direction of the leap into the magic of the moment becomes apparent. It emerges from every action, every brushstroke, only at the very moment it happens, revealing what the next, inevitable step is. The work in both painterly and spatial design intensifies during the process without being painted through.

Beyond the point where it hurts to look at the picture.

I could destroy it now, if I did not know that this voyage through the night sea is the beginning of a journey towards something wonderfully magical, which must first be carried through the darkness into the light.

It must be satisfying; the colours, the forms. For me, it is nourishment that I create, and it should be substantial. It should not weigh heavily on the stomach, nor taste bland. No, it should make one want to take it in. It should be loud and yet sound soft.

Biography

Allan Paul

Born in Bielefeld in 1975

1982–1995: School years in Lübeck

2000–2004 Studied social pedagogy and social work in Lüneburg

2014–2016 Studied painting and illustration at the School of Fine Art and Design, Berlin

2016 Final project: ‘Freischwimmer’ under Prof. Wulff Sailer

2019 Member of the BVBK

2023 Asgard Scholarship, Tangen, Norway

Has been living and working as a freelance artist in Potsdam and Werder (Havel) since 2016.

Solo exhibitions (selection)::

06/2021, “Die Welt anhalten*”, Galerie Schindler, Potsdam

06/2021, “Desire and Devotion”, Brandenburg City Museum

May 2018, “Standing Out from the Crowd”, Galerie Anna von Glasow, Ludwigsfelde (Gröben)

June 2017, “Golden Times”, Galerie Woyy, Berlin

April 2017, “Just Passing Through”, Stewner Gallery, Lübeck

June 2016, “In Search Of”, Kunstwerk, Offener Kunstverein, Potsdam

Group exhibitions (selection)::

January 2024, ‘Diversity practice’, Galerie M, organised by the BVBK Brandenburg in Potsdam

April 2024, Retrospective, Ambience4Artist artists’ collective at Kunsthaus Sans Titre, Potsdam 

July 2024, ‘Inside Out’, Simone Westphal + Allan Paul 

Matschke Gallery and Café, Potsdam

08/2024, Tangen 2024, Mira Fieth + Bettina Henke + Allan Paul, Åsgard Artists’ Residence, Tangen, Norway

12/2024, Mikos Meininger & Friends, Kunsthaus Sans Titre, Potsdam 

May 2023, ‘Reflective Emotions’, Galerie 1565, Hamburg/Harburg

April 2023 “Weite Felder”, Kunstgut Krahne, Lehnin Monastery

September 2022, ‘Free Play’, project space ‘wil be present... APopUp for Society’, Potsdam

Jan 2021, ‘Lusus Naturae’, BCMA Gallery, Berlin

February 2020, ‘Kunstwinter’, Sans Titre Kunsthaus, Potsdam

February 2020, ‘Farbgewitter’ with Julia Brömsel, Kunstwerk Offener Kunstverein e.V., Potsdam

February 2020, “Panama”, with Nadine Conrad and Julia Brömsel, Kunst-Geschoss at the Stadtgalerie Werder, Werder

October 2019, ‘Chris Hinze and Allan Paul at Knaack’, Galerie Knaack 43, Berlin

08/2019, “Contrast”, with Justine Otto, Nadine Conrad and Dimitra Bouritsa, Villa Francke, Potsdam.

December 2018, “Artcamp Potsdam”, Villa Francke, Potsdam

October 2018, “Heimwaerts Festival”, Paulikloster, Brandenburg

December 2017, ‘No Religion, No Politics, Just Art’, with Nadine Conrad, Kosmos/Rechenzentrum, Potsdam