Birgit Megerle – Checkpoint

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Comunicato stampa

TURINER KUNSTVEREIN ? is pleased to present Checkpoint, solo exhibition by the German painter Birgit Megerle (Geisingen, 1975). The show is produced in partnership with Zuecca Projects, Venice.

From the outset of her career, Birgit Megerle has pursued figurative painting at a time when images of the being were proliferating across the media. Starting with portraits of women from her immediate circle, and later turning to public figures and anonymous passersby, the artist transforms her subjects into universal figures. In her works, the portrayed subjects are gradually stripped of specificity, their identities dissolving against geometric backdrops that evoke the language of abstraction. This theatrical detachment – the deliberate erasure of individuality – highlights how standardised visual forms can convey broader cultural meanings, while simultaneously destabilising our expectations of identity.

On display is a selection of portraits created in 2025. Compared to earlier works, in this selection resemblance or psychological depth no longer plays a central role. Even when the figures represent role models or institutions, they appear distant, and questions about the identity of the portrayed individuals recede in favour of painterly operations. What is represented becomes less the goal of the work than a starting point.

The focus thus shifts gradually but significantly from the subject’s meaning to a painterly position—towards processes that centre painting as a model (of practice). These processes are, in turn, subject to mutual relationships and interdependencies.