The Black Lounge, 2020

Francisca Ahlers  

Nostalgia for seemingly better times, or, perhaps simultaneously, a secret yearning for worse times to come, are woven into Francisca Ahlers's scenes. The main themes that she explores in her work are: the past, oblivion, solitude, and waiting, combined with the poetic method of recovering memory: the use black and white with just a few segments of colour. The artist's usual medium is charcoal to give life to ancient, uninhabited rooms.

The scenes reflect the romance of times gone by, as well as the space's descent from riches to rags. An excess of Baroque elements highlight the emptiness of exterior scenes. Inside, seemingly lost characters appear to be peering out showing the viewer their surroundings, without realising that they are actually part of the interior's beautiful decadence.

Ahlers' works are mainly composed of frayed lines, eloquently depicting the emotional state of people, and the elements present in her paintings often morph into swarms, which symbolise the characters' neurosis and the energy in the air. As such, the artist accentuates the feeling of anti-habitat emanated by her work, producing a curious and alluring effect: we are faced with an apparently uninhabitable environment, which, at the same time, seems welcoming and even familiar, awakening our curiosity for these timeless, exquisite and ghostly portraits.