Monika Romstein: Nach dem Lila links abbiegen

With "Turn Left at the Purple," Galerie Gilla Lörcher presents the third solo exhibition of Frankfurt-based artist Monika Romstein in Berlin. The title of the exhibition alludes to Romstein's obsession with the color violet. It is a matte, pale violet that weaves through all her works like a lilac thread. The exhibition showcases Romstein's sculptural, painterly, and installation art. The combination of these different forms allows her to "find counter-images (as a kind of antidote) for today's present," as the artist puts it. This opens up new narrative possibilities for her—image becomes object / object becomes image / objects behave like subjects.

The howling is a long purple tongue, leaving behind ants of horror and lily juice
(Federico Garcia Lorca)

Monika Romstein, born in Saarlouis, lives and works in Frankfurt a.M. The artist studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts (Städelschule) in Frankfurt a.M. under Christa Näher. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in 1998 at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (University of Dundee) in Dundee, Scotland. In 1990, she completed her studies in Art and Film Studies at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt with a Magister Artium. In 1993, Monika Romstein was awarded the DAAD scholarship for study abroad at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, in 2009 the Moldau Scholarship from the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art, and in 2014 the Artist-in-Residence scholarship from the City of Frankfurt a.M.

Her works have been presented in numerous institutions and galleries, including (selection): Saarländisches Künstlerhaus (Saarbrücken); Kunstverein Frankfurt a.M.; Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh, Scotland); Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (Glasgow, Scotland); Portikus (Frankfurt a.M.); Galerie Perpetuel (Frankfurt a.M.); Galerie Anita Beckers (Frankfurt a.M.); Galerie Hanf Weihnacht (Frankfurt a.M.); Galerie Ulrich Müller (Cologne) and Galerie Gilla Lörcher I Contemporary Art (Berlin).