from: Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren (DE)
to: Nieuwe Domein, Sittard (NL)
The Cologne-based artist Katharina Jahnke explores how architecture, images, text, ornament, and form shape our perception, our thinking, and our relationship to reality. At the core of her artistic practice is the principle of collage—bringing together image systems from diverse origins and meanings into a cohesive, overarching visual language. This method allows her to create fantastical, conceptually unified worlds that are both visually compelling and intellectually rich.
Her contribution to What the Flag?! reflects this approach: she merges views of spiraling staircases into a harmonious flow of movement—only to disrupt it with the presence of a spider in its web. The result is a striking tension between dynamic elegance and symbolic entrapment, questioning the paths we follow and the structures we inhabit.
Born in Berlin in 1968, Katharina Jahnke studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Her career includes numerous prestigious grants and residencies, such as the travel grant from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, a DAAD scholarship in Los Angeles, a residency at the German Study Center in Venice, the studio grant from the Kölnischer Kunstverein, and work grants from Kunststiftung NRW and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Alongside her artistic practice, she is actively engaged in art education, having held teaching positions at institutions including Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and Folkwang University of the Arts.