Rebekka von Zimmermann is a painter of emotive states in the context of digital emergence. The conceptual framework for her practice is provided by her design of a sign system for a fictional `other´ culture: The Society of Soon Foundation. So called subject-citizens are clusters of works within this system, each evolving from a specific theme or idea.She gathers quotes, snippets and personal experiences in a process of data gathering on index cards and has devised a self-referential system using a vocabulary of sign-like shapes and colors, which the she continues to draw upon, repeat, and reformulate in her work.
Scaffolding of ideas, data capture and the architecture of servers are all relevant for the development of her works. Every datapoint a mark in itself, her practice explores painting as a perfomative process of bodies that move a material mass, leaving a trace of memories. As such her work is can be seen as a constantly growing code, a painted data trail. Von Zimmermann has developed a distinct vernacular exploring pictorial invention, with a precise attention to brushwork and detail. She creates carefully considered compositions, often on multiple or oddly shaped canvases.
Formally, her works constantly investigates the ways that colours exist in relation to each other. Materiality, structure and form are main considerations, giving way to a deeper understanding of the spaces we navigate on a daily basis.The work is imbued with the sensitivity of one who feels everything, taking us through unflinching narratives and moments of reflection and tenderness.
In exhibitions, the artist often presents the paintings in the form of an installation. In this way Von Zimmermann’s paintings can be understood on relation to the Gesamtkunstwerk-aspect of opera or theater. She `performs´her paintings as fragments to become whole in a coherently and precisely designed scenography, creating a hybrid space of autonomous painting and theatrical decor in which the spectator finds his/her gaze returned in a state of heightened self-awareness.
Rebekka von Zimmermann  (b.1988 Tübingen, DE) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, Cooper Union New York and De Ateliers Amsterdam. She received the Mondriaan Fonds Werkbijdrage Jong\
Talent (2016). Her work was short listed for Kunstpreis Junger Westen (2019) and Karl Schmidt Rottluff Stipend (2016). Â
In 2020 she received the Stipendium Bildende Künstler*innen Sonderförderprogramm 20/21 NEUSTART KULTUR and an ongoing studio grant by Atelierförderung Berlin. And she was a recipient of Stipendium NEUSTART für Bildende Künstlerinnen und Künstler Neue Digitale Vermittlungsformate in 2022.
Recent shows include: KABINET-works on paper, m.simons gallery Amsterdam, 2023; Meta Index Neue Digitale Vermittlungsformate, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin, 2022; 'Kunstpreis Junger Westen', Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, 2020; 'I want to live in this land', Centrum, Berlin, 2019; Prospects & Concepts, Mondriaan Fonds, Art Rotterdam, 2018.
