o.T. (Leander)

The Berlin-based painter approaches the blank canvas – and the wealth of possibilities it offers – by initially setting aside the question of the subject matter. Although she develops a form, the subject matter is not the starting point, but rather a possibility within the act of painting. What is depicted is without purpose and is guided by the boundaries and divisions inherent in the canvas. From this basic grid, a form emerges which, much like the sculpture already hidden within the sculptor’s block of stone, is already contained within the picture.

Ucinski is concerned with transitions, edges and the interplay of forms amongst themselves, as well as between form and the surrounding space. The surrounding space is treated with just as much attention as the supposed subject of the picture, appearing at times without hierarchy and at other times thrusting itself to the fore alongside it. In many of her paintings, the surrounding space does not appear as an airy void, but as a corporeal mass that competes with the form. We usually perceive bodies as something solid and the surrounding space as atmosphere. She reverses this relationship in her paintings.

The interaction of colour with the canvas is essential in Ucinski’s painting. The canvas is not a support with a closed surface, but a responsive material that absorbs the paint and allows it to seep through. Accordingly, she often applies the first layers of paint even before priming the canvas. In some works, the canvas is stretched and turned over, making the translucent paint visible in an indirect and intangible way.

Exhibitions/ Awards

2024                Never Wash Without Soap, Galerie Neurotitan Berlin (G)

Show Group, Luis Leu Karlsruhe (G)

2023                Passagen, Cologne (G)

2022                Launch exhibition at mingbud, Hallmackenreuther, Cologne (G)

                        Class isn’t just hand cream, Nordbecken, Karlsruhe (G)

                        artwalk/ artspring, Sparkasse Schönhauser Allee

2021                Between Abstraction and Realism, Kunstverein Kreis Soest, (G)

Site Visit, Kunstverein Moabit, Berlin, (G)

Never-ending stories, Galerie Irrgang, Leipzig (G)

An Absent One, Labyrinth, Stuttgart (G)

2019               Double double this this, ßpace, Karlsruhe (E)

No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell, Dampfßchreinerei, Karlsruhe (G)

Treffen, Project Space of the Treptow Ateliers, Berlin (G)

                      You Say Goodbye, We Say Hello, Studio Building, Australian Embassy, Berlin (G)

2016               Top 16, Master Students’ Exhibition, Kunstverein Mannheim (G)

                       Happy Little Paintings, Luis Leu (with Cigdem Aky)

                       The Friend’s New Clothes, Villa Kolb, Karlsruhe (G)

                       Exhibition by Prof. Erwin Gross’s painting class, Plochingen Municipal Gallery (G)

2015               BES3TZT, Ciao, Karlsruhe (G, curator)

                       We’re here now, Toni Merz Museum, Sasbach (E)

               &        D’Accord, Art in Public Spaces, Karlsruhe (G)

2014               Toni Merz Prize