Lunita-July Dorn

LUNITA-JULY DORN | + am Ende nicht vermissen @ Galerie Judith Andreae

In her large-format acrylic paintings and drawings, Lunita-July Dorn (*1999) creates dynamic visual worlds that oscillate between surreal narrative and documentary reflection. Her works are poetic interweavings of personal memories and artistic expression and reveal a haunting, almost tangible intimacy. Dorn seduces with an unmistakably loose painting style: broad, energetic brushstrokes meet subtle details that interweave the banal and the poetic. While Dorn's earlier works tend to explore fictitious scenarios in which the artist is the protagonist in imaginary spaces, her latest works are dedicated to concrete memories. Her method is radically intuitive: without any preliminary sketches, she begins by spontaneously laying out a figure on the canvas and builds a world of colour, forms and narratives around it. The creative process is visible, traces of constant overpainting and revision lend the works a vibrant liveliness. Her pictorial language moves between the expressive gesture and an introspective love of detail - a harmonious dissonance that invites viewers to linger and explore.

Following her participation in the group exhibitions ‘Big City Baby’ at ZAK - Centre for Contemporary Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2022), and ‘CHERRIES ON TOP’ at Galerie Judith Andreae (2023), her works have been presented in international contexts. A highlight was the exhibition at Palazzo Bembo on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 2024, which focussed exclusively on female positions. In the same year, Dorn was part of the comprehensive group exhibition ‘Gegen den Strich - GEN Z in der Kunst’ at Sacrow Castle near Potsdam.

This February, marks Lunita-July Dorn's first solo exhibition at Galerie Judith Andreae.

Opening February 6th, 6-9 pm, Exhibition duration: 07.02.2025 - 22.03.2024

LUNITA-JULY DORN | Gegen den Strich, Schloss Sacrow

The exhibition GEGEN DEN STRICH runs until October 20th at Schloss Sacrow in Potsdam. Expressive colorfulness, radical subjectivity, rough strokes and impulsive style as well as a humorous approach to artistic models and pictorial traditions are some of the characteristics of the exhibition 'Against the Grain'. The featured artists from different backgrounds, graduates of art colleges and academies, belong to a generation for whom classifications according to art movements and nationalities, painting schools and styles only play a subordinate role, who move freely between abstraction and figuration.

LUNITA-JULY DORN & RUNE MIELDS | Palazzo Bembo, Venedig

"Unapologetic WomXn", curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton, NY, 20. April - 24. November 2024, Palazzo Bembo, Venedig.

“Unapologetic WomXn”, The Dream is the Truth”, curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton, NY & Stockholm. This international group exhibition consists of 31 female artists on the subject of female sexuality through their own eyes while creating a safe space of community, allowing for more of a humanized view of anything the artists focus on; their bodies, experiences, how women navigate the world within the changes that occur in it constantly, and the importance of artists and art not conforming to the constraints of our societies. This isn’t dissimilar to the way a traditionally male dominated society has imposed and still imposes their idea of what a woman should be; art is supposed to make you feel; whether it being a sense of peace or shakes and asks you to confront your ideas, otherwise isn’t it just decoration? Are women only decoration? A mere object?

The experience of being a woman is multifaceted; there are many X-factors that basically decide what one’s experience as a woman and quality of life will most likely look like. From family and society, economic and socioeconomic factors, racial background, skin tone, zip codes, the beauty standards of one’s culture or the culture of the country you live in, politics and laws that affect your womXnhood. Rarely imposed by you, but the burden is yours to bear.
Women are and can be many things, daughters, mothers, sisters, CEOs, entrepreneurs, workers, caregivers, caretakers, providers, innovators, lovers, wives, queer, lesbian, bisexual, Christian, Muslim, atheists, Hindus, Sikhs, Catholics, Jewish, politicians, world leaders, women are loved, objectified, respected, disrespected, stoned, killed, admired, trafficked, worshipped, enslaved, oppressed, abused, used, celebrated, monetized, mourned, can be Caucasian, Black, Asian, Aboriginal, Hispanic, biracial, even multiracial, can be children, teens, adults, young or old, tall, short, skinny, obese, malnourished, healthy or not, refugees, free to travel or not, allowed to get an education or not, choose their partner or not, decide how to dress or not, their lives, gender and sexual expression, bodies and reproductive rights decided for them or not. Are women free to just “be”? One says it’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times we live in. Are women artists allowed to do so the same way as their male counterparts?

The exhibition has work by artists aged 25 to 89, emerging to established, from Greece, Germany, Uganda, Ukraine, South Africa, Sweden, India, Iran, Ukraine, USA, etc., some work specifically made for, other work lent for this exhibition, incl. from Ross-Sutton’s personal collection. Stacey Gillian Abe, Isa Andersson, Pyaar Azaadi formerly known as Jaishri Abichandani, Rita Mawuena Benissan, Alison Blickle, Gill Button, Basha Chakrabarti, Dorothea Charol, Renee Cox, Ariel Dannielle, Lunita-July Dorn, Monica Kim Garza, Vanessa German, Reihaneh Hosseini, Stella Kapezanou, Lyne Lapointe, Amani Lewis, Turiya Magadlela, Emily Manwaring, Kristina Matousch, Rune Mields, Sungi Mlengeya, Zanele Muholi, Lydia Nobles, Vanessa Raw, Paris Reid, Deborah Roberts, Georgia Theologou, Sevina Tzánou, Nadia K Waheed and Ryan Wilde.