As a geographer, and with nature being her main inspiration, Petra Gimmi often works on her paintings like the elements of nature do on a landscape: Her paintings experience flood and drought, new material is accumulated and shifted, layers of paint are eroded like layers of rock, she looks for transparency as if looking deep into a body of water, she makes the colours fan out like in a prism or in a raindrop in the atmosphere.

She moves in between the abstract and the figurative - what you see might remind you of the physical world, but her intent is not to mirror nature, but to work in the living, like nature.

Petra Gimmi grew up in the south of Germany, in the rough, remote and beautiful landscape called “Schwäbische Alb”, full of rocks, beech forests and juniper heath. She has always had a deep connection to nature, and at the same time an urge to get even closer to it. For her, the artistic process is one of the ways she follows that desire.

She first studied geography and got to know the elements of nature and the interconnection between rock, soil, landscape, atmosphere, climate, water, plants, animals and humans. While she appreciated this knowledge (and the perfect reason for extensive travels her studies gave her), the realisation that just knowing and seeing were not enough, but left the actual secret untouched, lead her to study art.

So in her artwork, Petra Gimmis focus is to get closer to that secret, to examine the living, all of live, and our place in the ever changing world. She aims to “enter into the thick of things”, to use Paul Auster’s words, and also to bring the freshness and wideness of that encounter to the viewers of her works.

 

 

 

“I don’t want my work to dominate the room, but to open up new spaces.

A new space in the life of everyone looking at it, a sense of possibilities

 Even that which weighs heavily can unfold its own beauty if it is given this wide space.”

Petra Gimmi

 

 

 

 

 

C V

 

Born in 1972, grown up in Schwäbische Alb in the south of Germany. 2 children.

Lives and works on Lake Constance.

 

1993-1999                        Geography studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München/ Diplom

2000-2003                        Visual Art studies with Denis Emmelin, Freie Hochschule Efringen-Kirchen/ Diplom

Since 2003                        Artistic work

Since 2016                        Lecturer for art courses, Bodenseekreis

2018-2019                        Master Art Education, Freie Hochschule Stuttgart

 

 

Selected exhibitions

 

2004                                   Autumn exhibition, Kunsthalle Kleinschönach, Germany

                                             „Ring twice in urgent cases – paintings and patience in

                                             Iceland", Galerie Skriduklaustur, Iceland, solo exhibition

2005                                   Group show of award winners „Art Cards“ Galerie Etage 2,

                                             Rottweil, Germany

                                             Spring exhibition, Kunsthalle Kleinschönach, Germany

2006                                   Group Show Landratsamt Marktoberdorf, Germany

Gallery Siopa Cill Rialaig, Ballinskelligs, Ireland

                                             „Kunstkraftwerk“ Kunsthallen am Lech, Füssen, Germany

2007                                   Group Show Gröbming, curated by Maja Pogacnik, Austria

2008                                   Group Show Artweek, Sennhof, Heiligenberg, Germany

2009                                   Galerie AllerArt, Heiligenberg, Germany, solo exhibition

2012                                   Städtische Galerie Owingen, Germany, solo exhibition

2018                                   Galerie Julia Blickle, Sipplingen, Germany, solo exhibition

 

 

Competitions/ grants/ publications

 

2003                                   Artist in Residence in Vallanes, Iceland

2004                                   Artist in Residence Kunsthalle Kleinschönach, Germany

                                             Artistic work in Iceland, California and New Mexico

                                             Studio grant Kunsthalle Kleinschönach

2005                                   Winner of the competition "Art Cards 05", Rottweil,

                                             Germany

2006                                   Artist in Residence at the artists‘ village Cill Rialaig Project,

                                             Kerry, Ireland

2014                                   Publication in “Alexandria Quarterly, a curated

                                             portfolio of art and literature”, USA, by Tamra Vassallo

                                             Carraher