Sławomir Elsner: From the field, through the hand, into the vase

We are pleased to announce the fifth solo exhibition by Berlin-based artist Sławomir Elsner, with whom we have collaborated since 2004. The exhibition is dedicated to one of the oldest and most versatile art historical motifs: the flower.

Hardly any other visual motif has given rise to such a wide variety of shifts in meaning, function, and interpretation over the millennia. In the Christian visual tradition of the Middle Ages and early modern period, the white lily—particularly in depictions of the Annunciation—became a central attribute of the Virgin Mary and a symbol of her purity and virginity. Carnations and roses could—depending on the pictorial context and color scheme—symbolize divine or earthly love, the Passion of Christ, and marital fidelity and betrothal. In 17th-century European painting (particularly in Dutch and Flemish still lifes), the flower increasingly became a vanitas motif linking beauty and transience. At the same time, precious, rare, and exotic blooms bore witness to trade relations, the culture of collecting, prosperity, and social prestige. Since the 19th century and increasingly in the modern era, their significance as subjects in light studies, color experiments, and subjective expression has grown alongside their traditional iconographic function. In contemporary art, they increasingly serve as canvases for ecological, social, and political issues.

It is precisely this extraordinary adaptability that forms the starting point for Slawomir Elsner’s new body of work. He is interested in the flower not merely as an iconographic motif, but as a vessel for visual memory that has evolved over the centuries. Within it, religious symbolism, mythological narratives, scientific observation, and painterly experiments coalesce into a visual memory that continues to resonate into the present. His works revolve around the afterlife of art-historical visual forms, the transience of vision, and the fragility of memory.