Helene Appel’s paintings deal with things that often go unnoticed – everyday objects, fleeting traces, incidental phenomena. An envelope, a puddle of water, fish bones, dust: these are motifs that we encounter in life without paying much attention to them. In Appel’s work, however, they receive quiet attention – a painterly concentration that lends space and weight to the unspectacular.

The title of the exhibition, ‘Correspondence’, opens up several levels of meaning. Literally, it refers to correspondence – to writing, sending and receiving messages. As simple as an envelope may seem, it stands for the attempt to establish a connection. But ‘Correspondence’ can also be understood as ‘correspondence’ or ‘relationship’: as a subtle interplay between things, meanings and perception. In Appel’s pictures, the visible corresponds with the inner, the real with the painterly, the fleeting with the permanent.