2016/05 Print

Tanja Meier’s work (* 1968, Germany) is often perceived as dark and melancholic. But it's not only about sorrow and grief; she delves deeper. In her artwork, Tanja invites the viewer to go on fearlessly, to cross borders and to not avoid the depths. Darkness is part of life - and more expressive for the artist than the cheerful side. Meier paints people as a portrait or figure in an empty, almost surreal space - often accompanied by ravens or crows - and sometimes only the space. In her pictures she brings together all the fragments of thoughts, feelings, sensations and memories that arise simultaneously and transforms them into a sometimes disturbing, but always moving composition - extremely personal and at the same time universal. In 2001, the introverted natural scientist and soon-to-be programmer, Tanja Meier set out to discover the Netherlands. A chance encounter with art in the museums of her new home incited a powerful inner urge to break free: Using visual art in a language of her own design, she sought to create something that represented everything incomprehensible in her life that was difficult to describe rationally.