28 March – 22 May 2026
Zander Galerie Cologne
Opening: Saturday, 28 March 2026, 3-6pm
The artist is present.
Zander Galerie is pleased to present The Long Goodbye, an exhibition of new and recent works by Christiane Baumgartner. Her large-scale woodcuts of landscapes and seascapes at dusk are based on the artist’s own video stills and digital photographs. From a distance, the images appear almost photo-graphic; up close they dissolve into finely carved grids of parallel lines, revealing the physical process of their making. Baumgartner’s practice is rooted in the translation of digital imagery into the traditional medium of woodcut. Carving line by line into large wooden blocks, she transforms fleeting moments of light and atmosphere into slow, labor-intensive prints. The resulting works move between figuration and abstraction: seascapes, skies, and reflections gradually emerge from dense linear structures that recall both analog signal patterns and the raster of digital images. By translating the fleeting image from the screen into the long and tactile process of carving and printing, Baumgartner’s large-scale woodcuts reflect on contemporary experiences of time, perception, and uncertainty.
Although these works may initially seem like peaceful meditations on the natural world, they mark the tensions between nature and human conflict. The exhibition‘s title refers to the artist’s latest large-scale woodcut that captures a world becoming “black and white… vague and fragile.” The Long Goodbye, 2026, is part of a series named ‘the outer world’ and represent Baumgartner’s attempt to control or preserve moments in time when the current political climate is increasingly volatile. She started this series of works in 2022, when she first heard about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In light of this event, the artist revisited the feeling of paralysis she had experienced in her youth in Cold War-era Germany. Baumgartner’s woodcuts from her early creative period were shaped by growing up in East Germany over thirty years ago, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. For this series, Baumgartner also considered the role the sky and celestial phenomena played in medieval times, foreshadowing future events. This imposing work is based on her own photographs of the Baltic Sea, of sunsets that pierce through heavy and ominous clouds.
A central focus within the exhibition is on a new series of coloured woodcuts: Sunken Treasure, in which light appears glimmering luminously beneath the surface of the sea, rendered in subtle tones of violet, green, and blue. Through the pressure and layering of ink, and through selective abrasion on the verso, Baumgartner alters the printed surface so that each impression becomes subtly distinct and unique. In contrast to the works described above, Baumgartner views these prints as being more inward-looking and intended to convey a perspective from below. The artist, who has often critiqued material culture and human consumption in her practice, named the variants in this series after precious stones. Sunken Treasure – Diamonds and Sunken Treasure – Pearls are depicted in vivid colors, as the artist grapples with human ideals of beauty and value, compared to the limits and constraints of global growth.
Christiane Baumgartner’s internationally acclaimed work has been featured in numerous exhibitions; currently, the LACMA is dedicating a major solo exhibition to her work in Los Angeles, titled Deep Cuts. Her works are included in the collections of institutions and museums worldwide, e.g. the Albertina, Vienna; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin; The Federal Collection of Contemporary Art, Bonn; Sprengel Museum, Hanover; British Museum, London, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In 2014 she was awarded the Mario Avati Printmaking Prize by the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and is now one of the eight nominees for the prestigious 2026 Pauli Prize. The artist lives and works in Leipzig, Germany.
