Nicola Barth

Lives and works in Langen, Hessen, Germany

Artist statement

My work explores states of transition. I am interested in thresholds—those unstable moments in which one condition shifts into another, where identities, forms, and perceptions remain unresolved. Rather than depicting the visible world, I create spaces in which different possibilities can coexist. My paintings emerge through an intuitive process of layering, erasure, and revision. Working primarily with acrylic, oil, and graphite, I allow forms to appear, dissolve, and reconfigure themselves. The resulting images do not describe fixed realities but suggest temporary constellations, fragments of processes that remain in motion. Many of my works originate in an interest in what lies behind or between familiar structures: transitional spaces, dreamlike states, and zones of uncertainty where distinctions between inner and outer, presence and absence, become fluid. I am less concerned with representation than with making perceptible something that is normally overlooked—the subtle transformations that shape experience before they become visible. My paintings do not offer narratives or conclusions. Instead, they invite viewers to enter an open field of associations and to engage with ambiguity as a productive condition. For me, painting is not a way of illustrating ideas but a way of thinking through them. It is a space where perception can remain unfinished and where new questions may emerge.

Artwork