With the weiβe Bilder (1989-1993), which can be seen as the counterpart to the series schwarze Bilder (black paintings) of the 70s, Astrid Klein approaches the limits of visibility. To make the invisible visible and to show what can’t be shown is hinted at in the paradoxical phrase Erinnerungen eines Gedächtnislosen (memoirs of a person who does not remember) featured in one if the works on display. The memories fade in the gradual repetitions of two lines of text, as this is how the almost unrecognisable text line at the bottom left hand corner can be interpreted – nicht bis ins Herz getrieben (they do not penetrate the heart).

Astrid Klein’s paintings, collages, works of photography and installations created since 1978 question, deconstruct and renew the relationship between image and text. Since the beginning of the 90s, she continued these intense discussions also in her large format neon sculptures and light installations. The form and the typeface of the text play as important a role in the works as the content. The overlay, blurring and accentuation can be read as the archeological layers of our thinking and our perception, of memory and oblivion, of what we suppress and what is subconscious.

Astrid Klein lives and works in Cologne, she has been awarded numerous prizes for her works, amongst others the Käthe-Kollwitz-Prize of the Academy of Arts, Berlin (1997) and the KUNSTKÖLN-PRIZE in 2001 (now the Cologne Fine Art & Antiques-Prize). Since 1993 the artist has held a professorship at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig.

Astrid Klein’s works have been displayed in prominent solo exhibitions. These include L’air de Berlin 2000 Rauminstallation at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2002); Auswege II at the Neue Museum, Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nürnberg (2001). The artist’s photographic works were exhibited in 1995 at the Fotomuseum Winterthur similarly in 1989 in the exhibition Astrid Klein. Photoarbeiten 1984-1989 in the Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover; the Institute for Contemorary Art, London; the Wiener Sezession, Vienna and the Forum Stadtpark, Graz. Important group exhibitions include Zur Vorstellung des Terrors. Die RAF-Ausstellung, at the KW- Kunst-Werke, Berlin (2005); Deutschlandbilder, at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (1997); Photographie des 20. Jahrhunderts, at the Museum Ludwig, Köln (1996); Photography in contemporary German art 1960 to the present, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1992). Noteworthy is Astrid Klein’s participation in the Documenta 8 (1987) and the 42nd Biennale in Venice (1986).