The 1870 Art Center Gallery presents “Through a Glass, Darkly”, an exhibition of new workby Silke Henkel-Wallace.
This exhibition features large scale mixed media work on canvas that explore the continuity of culture and individual. Of her work, Dr. Christina zu Mecklenburg
wrote, “They lie between still life, portraiture, and mood … they take you on a night flight deep into the realm of beauty, where lies an abyss, that mysterious, domain of shadow whose ghostly beauty lies beyond our ability to identify.” As her work is primarily exhibited and sold on the east coast and in Germany, this exhibition offers a rare Bay Area opportunity to see this work.
The haunting work on display features images taken from old photographs and postcards of the 19th and early 20th century, often found by Henkel-Wallace at
flea markets in Berlin or the east coast. These images are augmented and extended by the paintbrush, creating ethereal impression of lost messages and faintly-grasped meaning.
Henkel-Wallace says that she is fascinated by the fact that we as humans are trapped on a linear path from birth to death. With time, the traces of our existence will fade away. Letters, photographs, postcards written long ago are examples of these traces and are often the last tangible reminder of a person’s life. Relating emotions such as sadness, hope and strength, often anonymous and at times illegible, they express a universal message that transcends cultural and linguistic barriers.
Silke Henkel-Wallace works as an artist in the Bay Area. Born and raised in northern Germany, she first pursued a career in the Graphic Arts in Europe. Moving to Boston to earn a Bachelor of Arts, she then lived successively in San Francisco and Paris before settling in California. Through all of this travel, she pursued her studies in painting and the arts, working in museums, with mentors, and in the traditional workshop setting.
In all her work, the universal human search for meaning in life has been a constant theme. In her exploration of the mystery of life, she studies the change and reshaping of the seasons, the dependency and reliability of the cycle of birth and death, and the social structures that build bridges of understanding between past and the future.
She has been exhibiting for almost a decade in galleries in North America and Europe. Her commissioned works are collected internationally.
