Valeria
Heisenberg
30.08. - 11.10.2026
Artist Statement
My paintings appear photographic at first glance, yet they are meticulously constructed on thin aluminum sheets. Drawing from photographic references of urban spaces and underwater environments, my work explores transparency, reflection, and depth as shifting spatial experiences. These motifs function less as representations of specific places than as perceptual fields in which surfaces open onto unexpected spatial relationships.
The works are developed through a time-intensive layering process. Painted surfaces are repeatedly sealed with transparent automotive lacquer before additional color glazes are applied. Through this alternating buildup of paint and lacquer - often up to ten layers - light penetrates the surface and becomes an active element of the work. The motifs seem to hover within the material, suspended between layers, creating a sense of depth that is both physical and atmospheric. The process emphasizes duration, accumulation, and the tension between control and chance.
Alongside these paintings, I produce watercolors that focus on everyday urban scenes with figures. These works capture moments of contemporary life situated between labor and leisure, observation and movement. Initially conceived as sketches related to the paintings, the watercolors have developed into an independent body of work, offering a more immediate and fluid counterpart to the layered, material-intensive painting process.
About the Project
Aquariums have been a recurring motif in my painting practice and an early point of reference for my interest in underwater imagery. From there, my focus gradually expanded toward open water and submerged landscapes. I am particularly drawn to jellyfish - their translucency, fragile presence, and the way they interact with light.
While snorkeling, I began to photograph underwater environments myself. Beneath the surface, I encountered marine plastic pollution for the first time. Floating plastic bags, drifting slowly through the water, bore a disturbing resemblance to jellyfish. This moment marked a quiet but profound shift in my work. During a stay in Egypt, this observation became the subject of a painting depicting suspended plastic bags. Since then, ecological awareness has embedded itself naturally into my artistic process.
Living in Berlin, far from the sea, I am separated from the specific light conditions and water clarity that allow direct access to this fragile environment. So far, my underwater motifs have not been realized in watercolor.
A residency by the sea offers me the opportunity to work in direct proximity to this environment and to develop a new body of work informed by observation, light, and atmosphere.
I am particularly interested in creating large-scale watercolor paintings of the ocean and its underwater landscapes. Watercolor, with its fluidity and transparency, mirrors the element it depicts, allowing images to emerge through a balance of control and chance.
Working close to the shoreline, I respond sensitively to the sea and its surroundings, exploring beauty and vulnerability, visibility and disappearance, and the fragile boundary between nature and human trace.
Interview
Why did you choose to stay at Agora Art Space?
When I first heard about the artist residency at Agora Art Space, I immediately thought that this location by the sea could offer me the opportunity to work undisturbed on large-format watercolors of underwater scenes over an extended period of time.
How did your time at Agora Art Space influence your creativity?
The place was even more perfect than I had expected. I'm from Berlin, where I'm very caught up in the daily routine of city life and family. In Koroni, for the first time in a long while, I was completely undisturbed and could devote myself to my experiments and subjects from morning to night without any time pressure. It was an incredibly productive time for me, and I'll be taking a lot of that energy from my stay here back with me to Berlin.
Based on which criteria did you choose the artwork you leave to Agora Art Space?
It took a preparatory phase involving many watercolors of subjects both above and below the water before I dared to paint a truly large piece: a diptych based on an underwater photo I took of myself floating on the water. For me, it was a rather unusual subject and a format for which I didn't really have the right supplies. As a result, it became my first truly major experiment. This painting is entirely a product of this place. It encapsulates everything this time here has meant to me. That's why it's staying here.
To whom would you recommend the Agora Art Space?
The Agora Art Space is a place for artists who can be alone with themselves and who want a space where they can work in peace and develop new ideas. At the same time, living in the midst of a village community is enriching, and daily contact with the local people provides a nice balance to studio work.
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