Tanja Hirschfeld

Symphony of contrasts: The multicultural background of the Munich-based Roman artist is reflected in her colorful works. Her multifaceted works, whose symbolic power extends to the multilingualism of… Read more

Exhibitions Interview

Background Information about Tanja Hirschfeld

Introduction

Symphony of contrasts: The multicultural background of the Munich-based Roman artist is reflected in her colorful works. Her multifaceted works, whose symbolic power extends to the multilingualism of the titles, are the artistic result of her intensive engagement with a wide variety of cultures.

In them, velvety pastel shades mingle with bright color compositions. Delicate figures appear in bold poses. Influences from classical art movements meet contemporary themes, nostalgic design picks up on modern desires. The refined minimalist design is based on the design of divination cards - as a symbol of the longing for clarity and stability and the yearning for freedom. From the smoker to the drinker to the eternally united couple: no matter what the lips of the figures are attached to, they tell stories of sensuality and passion.

Using various artistic techniques and symbolic languages, her works build a bridge between people from different cultures. Her artistic work is as colorful as her oil paintings: with a degree in photography, the artist creates detailed, large-format paintings as well as textile and installation works. She devotes herself to the theory of form and works in a performative and socially critical manner: in 2018, she founded the artist collective "Die Villa" which delves into the role of women in society.

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2023	„Poco ma con amore 02“ / All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	OLIV Refining Architecture / LA Art Gallery / Munich
	„Poco ma con amore“ / Momo Studio / Siracusa
	„Farben und Antworten“ / Galerie des Atlantik / Munich
2016	„100 drawings“ charity exhibition / Frida Gallery / Munich

Group Exhibitions

2023	Affordable Art Fair / All You Can Art Gallery / Hamburg
	St.Galler Kantonalbank „Druckgrafik ist Kult Vol.3“ by Schenk Modern Gallery / Munich
	Denkraum Deutschland „Hey, Alter“ / Pinakothek der Moderne / Munich
	„Das Leben ist ein Abenteuer“ / All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	„Artschnitzel 2023“ / Munich
	„Sommer Frische Kunst 2023“ / Wally / Bad Gastein
	Le latitudini dell’arte / Virginia Monteverde / Bethanien / Berlin
	Duo Show „Art Versus AI“ / Pauhaus Gallery / Los Angeles
	Plakatkunst Ausstellung für das Residenztheater / Pinakothek der Moderne / Munich
	Stroke Art Fair / Munich
	„Future NFT-KI Art Now“ / All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	„Horizonte“ / All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	„Digital Lab“ / Soho / Munich
	„Female Show“ / Munich Art Gallery / Munich
	Fem Festival „Oro“ Performance/ Kulturamt Ingolstadt / Ingolstadt
	„Looking for Unicorns“ / Filmproduktion 27 km / Munich
2022	„Don’t wake Daddy“ / Feinkunst Krüger Gallery / Hamburg
	„I thought I was an Alien“ / Polarraum / Hamburg
	„Arcana“, Farbenladen / Munich
	„Female“, All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	„24 Münchner Positionen / Munich Art Projektraum / Munich
	Glockenbachbiennale 2022 „Différent is Normal“ / Architekturgalerie im Bunker / Munich
	„Digital Art Lab“ / Art Muc / Munich
	„22 Artists for Ukraine“ / Mim, Raum für Kultur / Munich
2021	Denkraum Deutschland „Feminin“ / Pinakothek der Moderne / Munich
	„M!ss!ng“ Installation / Meadow Haus der Kunst / Munich
	Gallery Opening Group Show / Benjamin Eck Gallery / Hamburg
	„From Dusk Till Dawn“ Duo Show with Elena Sheidlin / Benjamin Eck Gallery / Munich
2020	„Trialog“ / Utopia Galerie / Munich
	Online Art Show „Pandemania – Covid 19, what does it do to you?“
	Online Art Show „Covidcreativeconvention“
	„Emotional Labor“ Art Show / Fraunberg Ateliers / Munich
	Installation „Die Frau im Wolfspelz“ / Wabisabi Shibui Gallery / Munich
2019	Art Fair Hamburg Affordable / All You Can Art Gallery
	Artist Group „The Villa“ Performance „Emotional Labor“ / Alte Utting / Munich
	Studio Opening Fraunbergs Studios / Munich
	„Arcana“ / Orangerie / Munich
	Pop Up Show „Culture Mix“ at Echo Park / Los Angeles
	Event at Villa Thomas Gottschalk, Ammersee / All You Can Art Gallery
	Art Fair ArtMuc / All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	Installation „Ghost Women“ / Wabisabi Shibui Gallery / Munich
2018	Art Fair Hamburg Affordable / All You Can Art Gallery
	„2 Artists, 2 Rooms“ / Benjamin Eck Gallery / Munich
	Artist Group „The Villa“ Performance „Hausarbeiten“ / Villa Zierer / Gröbenzell
	„The Coaster Show“ / 30 South Gallery / Pasadena
	Weltraum Gallery / Munich
	Art Fair ArtMuc / All You Can Art Gallery / Munich
	Art Fair Bruxelles Affordable / All You Can Art Gallery
2017	„Don’t wake Daddy“ / Feinkunst Krüger Gallery / Hamburg
	Art Fair Hamburg Affordable / Munique Art Gallery
	„The Coaster Show“ / La Luz de Jesus Gallery / L.A.
	Beastiezstyle and Friends / Farbenladen / Munich
2016	Annual Exhibition / Kunst und Kulturverein / Hohenaschau
	„Don’t wake Daddy“ / Feinkunst Krüger Gallery / Hamburg
	Duo Show Drawings / Weltraum Gallery / Munich
	„The Coaster Show“ / La Luz de Jesus Gallery / L.A.
	„Limbus“ / Fousion Gallery / Barcelona
	Stroke Art Fair / Frida Gallery / Munich
	“Frida’s Wall of small Arts 2.0“ / Frida Gallery / Munich
2015	„Schwarz Weiss“ / Short Time Gallery / Munich
	„Ya no estoy sola“ / Frida Gallery / Munich
	Stroke Art Fair Ltd. / Munich
	Blooom Art Fair Cologne / Munique Art Gallery
	„The Babylon Show“ / Surfclub Art Gallery / L.A.
	„The Coaster Show“ / La Luz de Jesus Gallery / L.A.
	„Zwischenspiel“ / Munique Art Gallery / Munich
2014	Surfclub Art Gallery / L.A.

Interview

Picasso once said: “You don’t make art, you find it.” Where do you find your art?

My head is constantly full of imagery. A kind of inner slideshow keeps playing, fed by my everyday surroundings. It’s not just about collecting visual stimuli - it’s moods, friends’ stories, and encounters with new people that take root in me.

Travel is also very important for my art - getting to know and feel other cultures nourishes me and sparks new ideas. Often, though, these only surface once I’m back home and have had time to let the impressions quietly settle.

From idea to realization: how do you approach your work?

Starting from analog sketches, I work my way toward the motif digitally. Using digital brushes, I develop the composition for the canvas, which is then transferred onto the large format in multiple layers of oil glazing. In the process, the motif usually shifts once more: the analog image has a completely different effect - certain elements no longer work, new ones come in, colors change. Deciding when a painting is finished remains, after all these years, still the most exciting moment of the whole process. When I draw or paint studies, on the other hand, I work completely freely, directly on paper or canvas.

Your favorite book?

There are different favorites from different phases of life. Right now it’s still “The End of Loneliness” by Benedict Wells.

Which artist would you like to have coffee with, and what would you talk about?

That’s a difficult question, because there are so many artists I would love not just to talk to but also to work with. I wonder what it must have felt like to make art under the most precarious conditions in early modernist Paris - like Picasso in his first years at the Bateau-Lavoir, or Modigliani, who often traded paintings for a meal. What conversations took place in the bars, what was life like in the smallest unheated studios in Pigalle? And in contrast, what was it like in the ‘80s in New York, with Basquiat and Warhol working in a state of pure frenzy, alongside drug-fueled nights? But more than anything, I’d love to sit at a table with Louise Bourgeois and Hilma af Klint and ask them which other women artists shaped art history at the time - names we never got to know.

How did you come to art?

Even as a little girl, I dreamed of one day studying at the art academy in Rome; I imagined myself walking through the old corridors, surrounded by centuries of art history. Then everything turned out differently, and I first studied design in Munich. But the love of art was already deeply rooted in me. I still remember that feeling exactly - standing in front of the great masterpieces in museums and imagining how the painter once stood before that very same canvas: what thoughts, what worries, what light filled the studio. It felt like a door into another time, one I could simply slip through with my imagination. My own, wonderful escape from reality. It was the same when I drew on my own: on paper I could create my own parallel world, a place that belonged only to me. Being a rather quiet, withdrawn child, my pictures became my language - through them I could express myself. In essence, I have been speaking this language my whole life.

Which people around you influence you?

My two children are by far my greatest source of inspiration: through them I look as if through a window into a new generation. Their feelings, hopes, but also their fears often flow unconsciously into my work. They sometimes show me the world through entirely different eyes. My husband, who also works creatively, is my rock. He believed in my success unconditionally from the very beginning, and his positive energy is still infectious today. In general, though, it’s mainly people with fire in their belly who shape me most - visionaries who know exactly what they’re passionate about and follow their path unwaveringly. That clarity and determination fascinates me.

Imagine you had a time machine. Where would the journey take you?

Into the future, without hesitation - the year 3000. I would love to know where we stand as humanity by then. Have we managed to live in harmony with nature, or have we lost it for good? Are there still forests, oceans, animals - or only memories? And how are people themselves doing: have we grown closer together, learned to treat one another more peacefully, or has progress alienated us even further? I’m also curious what art will feel like by then - does anyone still paint by hand, or has everything long since been taken over by machines? Is there still this need to express oneself?

Your greatest passion outside of art?

Art takes up such a large place in my life that there’s just enough room left for my family. But when I do find a moment for myself, besides sport, it’s often the theater that draws me in. It’s the particular magic of the live moment that fascinates me: unlike a painting, which is made for eternity, a theater performance exists only for that one evening, never quite the same way again. Every performance is its own fleeting work of art. I’m especially drawn to it when set design, light, and the body merge into a single image - almost like a living painting. Perhaps it’s also this closeness to transformation that appeals to me: how actors slip completely into another existence for two hours, much like I did as a child when I lost myself in images. For me, theater is another door into other worlds.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on two series in parallel. Giesecke+Devrient GmbH has given me a major commission to fill their entire executive floor with my art. For this, I’m immersing myself in the company’s history and DNA, creating a world that brings my visual language together with theirs. Building that bridge is demanding, but it inspires me enormously - it lets me experiment with new territory again. At the same time, I’m painting a very intimate new series: MINUS is a series of oil paintings that deals with the phenomenon of disappearance - with the voids that open up when something or someone leaves. The works examine absence on different levels: in personal life as well as in systemic contexts. Energy dissolves, changes its form, becomes something unknown. The series moves between figurative anchor points and abstract fields, between the tangible and what has already slipped away.