Anna Lena Straube
Current exhibition, Notes, on view March 6th - March 31st in St. Helena
The series of works "notes" attempts to combine abstract, monochrome colored areas and individual figures. Anna Lena Straube left out large areas of the motif from historical, photographic templates and filled them with generous, often three-colored color tones. On the other hand, the female figures who are alone are clearly in the foreground of the painting. The monochrome areas, with their rich color, form a great contrast to these realistically painted figures, which are only in colored shades of gray, and their surroundings. In this way, narrative reality mixes with geometric abstraction in the moment we see. This interaction completes our normal existence with the component of the "invisible" Paradoxically, the "invisible" here are the colored areas; they create a space that is not defined in terms of content and can therefore be interpreted, while the scenery of the individual figure conveys a clear narrative. The artist poses questions about the dimensions in which we perceive, move and orient ourselves.
Biography
Anna Lena Straube’s paintings radiate emotion and mystery, her figures moving through flickering expressions and postures hinting at social webs and inner lives. We glimpse them—often but not always female—in the midst of parties, private moments, or joyful child-like memories. Lushly rendered in the faded sepia tones and pastels of vintage photographs, the paintings feel like portals to another plane. In a sense they are acts of translation, re-inventing the truth of Straube’s photographic source material in the sensual, illusory language of paint.
Straube builds her imagery from historical material and references found photographs, she then fills the canvas with regions of geometric colored shapes in a limited but vibrant palette. The effect is a mind-bending meld of narrative reality and abstraction, as if the women are existing halfway in another realm. As Straube puts it, this strange interaction “completes our normal existence with the component of the ‘invisible.’” In other words, her images evoke a holistic view of reality infused with all the unseen elements that color experience, from thoughts to memories to dreams. Paradoxically, the “invisible” is represented in the paintings by the boldly colored areas, which create a space undefined in terms of content, while the grayscale scenes containing the individual figures convey a clear narrative.
Straube was born in 1978 in Bremen, and currently lives and works in Berlin. She studied at Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel under artist Peter Nagel. Since then she has exhibited at galleries and museums throughout Germany, including the Museum Pankow in Berlin and the Women’s Museum in Bonn.
Born
1978 Bremen, Germany
Education
1998 Abitur at the Free Waldorf School, Bremen
1998-1999 MA Sociology, Philosophy, Education, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
1999-2004 Fine Art, Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel with Professor Elisabeth Wagner and Professor Peter Nagel
2004-2005 Postgraduate studies in Art Therapy, HfBK Dresden with Professor Doris Tietze
Recognitions
2007 Scholarship from the State Chancellery in Kiel in the Künstlerhaus Kloster Cismar
2006 Sponsorship award from the state of Schleswig-Holstein for the fine arts
Valentine Rothe Prize (3rd place) Women's Museum Bonn
2005 Portrait commission for the mayor portrait of Dr. Otto Kelling, Kiel Town Hall
2002 Erasmus grant Faculdade des Belas Artes nu Porto, Portugal
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Notes, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, USA
Daughters, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater, Karlsruhe
2024 Bowie’s Property, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt, Galerie Bengelstrater
Discovery Art Fair Cologne, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater
2023 Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt, Galerie Bengelstrater
Minzgurn, Galerie Gengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Thinking about Eve, Frauenmuseum Bonn
Landschaft, FoYou Kunstraum, Berlin
San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, USA
Discovery Art Fair Cologne, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
Kiss Your Nightmares, Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden
2022 Renaissance 8, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Frauen im Blick, Gaslerie von Braunbehrens bei SAP in Waldorf, Stuttgart
Artspring, Remise in der alten Lederfabrik, Berlin
San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, USA
Discovery Art Fair, Cologne, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
Gigi, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, USA
New Works, mit Jenny Day, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater, Karlsruhe
2021 Renaissance 8, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco/St. Helena/Montecito
Discovery Art Fair, Galerie Bengelstrater, Frankfurt am Main
LA Art Show, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, USA
Thinking About Eve, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Intimacy Galerie, die ganze Freiheit, Berlin
Retrospektive, Peter Nagel, Stadgalerie zu Kiel
2020 Discovery art fair, Galerie Bengelsträter, Frankfurt am Main
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
2019 Multiplication, catalog, Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Discovery Art Fair, Galerie Bengelsträter, Frankfurt am Main
Current Cast, with Markus Desert (sculpture), Take Maracke, Kiel
Blickwechsel - neue Frauenbilder catalog , gallery von Braunbehrens, Stuttgart
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
Mind the Gap, with Markus Desert (sculpture), art at Intersearch, Hamburg
2018 Discovery art fair, Galerie Bengelsträter, Frankfurt am Main
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
Friendship - from the romantic salon to today's networks, Women's Museum Bonn, Bonn
Artspring central, Museum Pankow, Berlin
Hidden pages, Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
Voluntary Art Liaison Fo You, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg
The Beginning, Gallery Kunstraum B, Kiel
Artspring, Pankower Ateliertage, Remise of the old leather factory, Berlin
2017 Hidden pages, Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Session # 1, The Friendship Project with Jonas Marx, old leather factory, Berlin
Materia, Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
Artspring, Pankower Ateliertage, Remise of the old leather factory, Berlin
Season exhibition, Steinberger Galleries, Langenargen on Lake Constance
Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
2016 Special exhibition, Anna Lena Straube Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Art Fair 21, Steinberger Galleries, Cologne
Materia, catalog, Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelsträter, Karlsruhe
2015 Private connection, Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop, Fischland-Darß
Born to be wild, Art Tornow, Tornow / Brandenburg
Art Fair21 Cologne, Steinberger Galleries, Cologne
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelsträter, Karlsruhe
Nice to see you, Galerie Bengelsträter, Düsseldorf
50. Bunker exhibition, catalog, gallery in Bunker-D, Kiel
2014 Private collection, Galerie Bengelsträter, Düsseldorf
Finding Anna, Alte Lederfabrik, Berlin
Summer Exhibition, Steinberger Galleries, Weikersheim
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelsträter, Karlsruhe
2013 Renaissance-Rodeo, (with Heike Marie Krause) Art at Intersearch, Hamburg
Art Collection, catalog, Sparkassenakademie Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel
Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Bengelsträter / Steinberger Galleries
2012 Herzspiel, Galerie Läkemäker, Berlin
Dreiklang, Galerie Läkemäker, Fischland-Darß
Preview, Galerie Jamuschek & Partner and Galerie Läkemäker, Berlin
Feminine structures, one-artist-show, catalog, Steinberger Galleries, Art Karlsruhe
2011 Summer Exhibition, Steinberger Galleries, Weikersheim
Women and Vocation, Kunstverein Elmshorn
Season start, Steinberger Galleries
Weibsbilder, Galerie Z, Stuttgard
2010 Frauenzimmer, Gallery Uwe Sacksofsky, Heidelberg
24 Stars, Galerie Z, Stuttgart
Life, Love, Suffering - Images of Women by Contemporary Artists catalog, Bomann Museum in cooperation with the Kunstverein Celle, Celle
Flowers, Galerie Bengelsträter, Düsseldorf
Ship and Crown, Parktheater Iserlohn with Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
The contemporary witness as an extra Gallery in Bunker-D, Kiel
2009 WeibsBilder, (Justine Otto, Natalia Berschin) Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Couples, with Volker Tiemann, catalog, Landtag Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel
Preview, Galerie Stewner, Lübeck
Rot, Gallery // Atelier Bettina Düesberg, Berlin
Palm Beach Art Fair, Wilde Gallery, Palmb Beach, USA
2008 Inventory # 1, Wilde Gallery, Berlin
New Talents, Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
Berlin List House Cumberland, Wilde Gallery, Berlin
Anna Lena Straube / Deborah Dimeglio / Hanna Jäger Galerie Stewner, Lübeck
Miami Art Fair, Wilde Gallery, Miami USA
Toronto International Art Fair, Wilde Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Wild animals, Wilde Gallery, Berlin
Without above, also below Kunstraum B, Kiel
2007 Scheinwelten, Culture Center Schloss Salzau
The children swim, the children roast, Kunstraum B, Kiel
56. Landesschau, catalog, Kulturzentrum Schloss Salzau
2006 Anna Lena Straube & Julia Slodowicz, catalog 12/2006 Ars Borealis, Sparkassenstiftung Kiel
Scratching the surface, (Julia Slodowicz) Galerie Arsprototo, Erlangen
Modern fairy tale, gallery in Bunker-D, Kiel
16. Art Fair, Women's Museum Bonn
Anniversary Exhibition, Richard Heizmann Museum, Niebüll
2005 Double-binding-messages with Juliane Melches, Kunstraum B, Kiel
Gun pictures Sponti-Hansa, Kiel
Gottfried Brockmann Prize, catalog, Stadtgalerie zu Kiel
Right into the Heart, Art Market Detmold
2004 But now!, (catalog) Ministry of Culture in Kiel
The entertainment whore, Muthesius Kunsthochschule zu Kiel
Volume 1999/2000, Kunstverein Elmshorn
2003 It Happens, (catalog) Umtrieb, Galerie für Gegenwart Kunst, Kiel
Alone for Two, Theater broken windows, Berlin
Apotheke Mitte, Berlin
2002 Portugease garden, Faculdade des Belas Artes nu Porto, Portugal
Mittendrin, Friedrichstrasse 20, 2nd floor, Berlin
2001 Class meeting, (catalog) Kulturzentrum Schloss Salzau
Konsumenta, Umtrieb, gallery for contemporary art, Kiel
Press
PRESS
Selected Artworks
Born
1978 Bremen, Germany
Education
1998 Abitur at the Free Waldorf School, Bremen
1998-1999 MA Sociology, Philosophy, Education, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
1999-2004 Fine Art, Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel with Professor Elisabeth Wagner and Professor Peter Nagel
2004-2005 Postgraduate studies in Art Therapy, HfBK Dresden with Professor Doris Tietze
Recognitions
2007 Scholarship from the State Chancellery in Kiel in the Künstlerhaus Kloster Cismar
2006 Sponsorship award from the state of Schleswig-Holstein for the fine arts
Valentine Rothe Prize (3rd place) Women's Museum Bonn
2005 Portrait commission for the mayor portrait of Dr. Otto Kelling, Kiel Town Hall
2002 Erasmus grant Faculdade des Belas Artes nu Porto, Portugal
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Notes, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, USA
Daughters, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater, Karlsruhe
2024 Bowie’s Property, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt, Galerie Bengelstrater
Discovery Art Fair Cologne, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater
2023 Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt, Galerie Bengelstrater
Minzgurn, Galerie Gengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Thinking about Eve, Frauenmuseum Bonn
Landschaft, FoYou Kunstraum, Berlin
San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, USA
Discovery Art Fair Cologne, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
Kiss Your Nightmares, Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden
2022 Renaissance 8, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Frauen im Blick, Gaslerie von Braunbehrens bei SAP in Waldorf, Stuttgart
Artspring, Remise in der alten Lederfabrik, Berlin
San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, USA
Discovery Art Fair, Cologne, Galerie Bengelstrater, Koln
Gigi, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, USA
New Works, mit Jenny Day, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelstrater, Karlsruhe
2021 Renaissance 8, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco/St. Helena/Montecito
Discovery Art Fair, Galerie Bengelstrater, Frankfurt am Main
LA Art Show, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, USA
Thinking About Eve, Galerie Bengelstrater, Dusseldorf
Intimacy Galerie, die ganze Freiheit, Berlin
Retrospektive, Peter Nagel, Stadgalerie zu Kiel
2020 Discovery art fair, Galerie Bengelsträter, Frankfurt am Main
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
2019 Multiplication, catalog, Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Discovery Art Fair, Galerie Bengelsträter, Frankfurt am Main
Current Cast, with Markus Desert (sculpture), Take Maracke, Kiel
Blickwechsel - neue Frauenbilder catalog , gallery von Braunbehrens, Stuttgart
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
Mind the Gap, with Markus Desert (sculpture), art at Intersearch, Hamburg
2018 Discovery art fair, Galerie Bengelsträter, Frankfurt am Main
One-artist-show, Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
Friendship - from the romantic salon to today's networks, Women's Museum Bonn, Bonn
Artspring central, Museum Pankow, Berlin
Hidden pages, Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
Voluntary Art Liaison Fo You, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg
The Beginning, Gallery Kunstraum B, Kiel
Artspring, Pankower Ateliertage, Remise of the old leather factory, Berlin
2017 Hidden pages, Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Session # 1, The Friendship Project with Jonas Marx, old leather factory, Berlin
Materia, Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
Artspring, Pankower Ateliertage, Remise of the old leather factory, Berlin
Season exhibition, Steinberger Galleries, Langenargen on Lake Constance
Art Karlsruhe, Bengelsträter Gallery, Karlsruhe
2016 Special exhibition, Anna Lena Straube Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Art Fair 21, Steinberger Galleries, Cologne
Materia, catalog, Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelsträter, Karlsruhe
2015 Private connection, Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop, Fischland-Darß
Born to be wild, Art Tornow, Tornow / Brandenburg
Art Fair21 Cologne, Steinberger Galleries, Cologne
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelsträter, Karlsruhe
Nice to see you, Galerie Bengelsträter, Düsseldorf
50. Bunker exhibition, catalog, gallery in Bunker-D, Kiel
2014 Private collection, Galerie Bengelsträter, Düsseldorf
Finding Anna, Alte Lederfabrik, Berlin
Summer Exhibition, Steinberger Galleries, Weikersheim
Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Bengelsträter, Karlsruhe
2013 Renaissance-Rodeo, (with Heike Marie Krause) Art at Intersearch, Hamburg
Art Collection, catalog, Sparkassenakademie Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel
Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Bengelsträter / Steinberger Galleries
2012 Herzspiel, Galerie Läkemäker, Berlin
Dreiklang, Galerie Läkemäker, Fischland-Darß
Preview, Galerie Jamuschek & Partner and Galerie Läkemäker, Berlin
Feminine structures, one-artist-show, catalog, Steinberger Galleries, Art Karlsruhe
2011 Summer Exhibition, Steinberger Galleries, Weikersheim
Women and Vocation, Kunstverein Elmshorn
Season start, Steinberger Galleries
Weibsbilder, Galerie Z, Stuttgard
2010 Frauenzimmer, Gallery Uwe Sacksofsky, Heidelberg
24 Stars, Galerie Z, Stuttgart
Life, Love, Suffering - Images of Women by Contemporary Artists catalog, Bomann Museum in cooperation with the Kunstverein Celle, Celle
Flowers, Galerie Bengelsträter, Düsseldorf
Ship and Crown, Parktheater Iserlohn with Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
The contemporary witness as an extra Gallery in Bunker-D, Kiel
2009 WeibsBilder, (Justine Otto, Natalia Berschin) Bengelsträter Gallery, Düsseldorf
Couples, with Volker Tiemann, catalog, Landtag Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel
Preview, Galerie Stewner, Lübeck
Rot, Gallery // Atelier Bettina Düesberg, Berlin
Palm Beach Art Fair, Wilde Gallery, Palmb Beach, USA
2008 Inventory # 1, Wilde Gallery, Berlin
New Talents, Bengelsträter Gallery, Iserlohn
Berlin List House Cumberland, Wilde Gallery, Berlin
Anna Lena Straube / Deborah Dimeglio / Hanna Jäger Galerie Stewner, Lübeck
Miami Art Fair, Wilde Gallery, Miami USA
Toronto International Art Fair, Wilde Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Wild animals, Wilde Gallery, Berlin
Without above, also below Kunstraum B, Kiel
2007 Scheinwelten, Culture Center Schloss Salzau
The children swim, the children roast, Kunstraum B, Kiel
56. Landesschau, catalog, Kulturzentrum Schloss Salzau
2006 Anna Lena Straube & Julia Slodowicz, catalog 12/2006 Ars Borealis, Sparkassenstiftung Kiel
Scratching the surface, (Julia Slodowicz) Galerie Arsprototo, Erlangen
Modern fairy tale, gallery in Bunker-D, Kiel
16. Art Fair, Women's Museum Bonn
Anniversary Exhibition, Richard Heizmann Museum, Niebüll
2005 Double-binding-messages with Juliane Melches, Kunstraum B, Kiel
Gun pictures Sponti-Hansa, Kiel
Gottfried Brockmann Prize, catalog, Stadtgalerie zu Kiel
Right into the Heart, Art Market Detmold
2004 But now!, (catalog) Ministry of Culture in Kiel
The entertainment whore, Muthesius Kunsthochschule zu Kiel
Volume 1999/2000, Kunstverein Elmshorn
2003 It Happens, (catalog) Umtrieb, Galerie für Gegenwart Kunst, Kiel
Alone for Two, Theater broken windows, Berlin
Apotheke Mitte, Berlin
2002 Portugease garden, Faculdade des Belas Artes nu Porto, Portugal
Mittendrin, Friedrichstrasse 20, 2nd floor, Berlin
2001 Class meeting, (catalog) Kulturzentrum Schloss Salzau
Konsumenta, Umtrieb, gallery for contemporary art, Kiel
Anna Lena Straube’s paintings radiate emotion and mystery, her figures moving through flickering expressions and postures hinting at social webs and inner lives. We glimpse them—often but not always female—in the midst of parties, private moments, or joyful child-like memories. Lushly rendered in the faded sepia tones and pastels of vintage photographs, the paintings feel like portals to another plane. In a sense they are acts of translation, re-inventing the truth of Straube’s photographic source material in the sensual, illusory language of paint.
Straube builds her imagery from historical material and references found photographs, she then fills the canvas with regions of geometric colored shapes in a limited but vibrant palette. The effect is a mind-bending meld of narrative reality and abstraction, as if the women are existing halfway in another realm. As Straube puts it, this strange interaction “completes our normal existence with the component of the ‘invisible.’” In other words, her images evoke a holistic view of reality infused with all the unseen elements that color experience, from thoughts to memories to dreams. Paradoxically, the “invisible” is represented in the paintings by the boldly colored areas, which create a space undefined in terms of content, while the grayscale scenes containing the individual figures convey a clear narrative.
Straube was born in 1978 in Bremen, and currently lives and works in Berlin. She studied at Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel under artist Peter Nagel. Since then she has exhibited at galleries and museums throughout Germany, including the Museum Pankow in Berlin and the Women’s Museum in Bonn.
Biography
Press
Current exhibition, Notes, on view March 6th - March 31st in St. Helena
The series of works "notes" attempts to combine abstract, monochrome colored areas and individual figures. Anna Lena Straube left out large areas of the motif from historical, photographic templates and filled them with generous, often three-colored color tones. On the other hand, the female figures who are alone are clearly in the foreground of the painting. The monochrome areas, with their rich color, form a great contrast to these realistically painted figures, which are only in colored shades of gray, and their surroundings. In this way, narrative reality mixes with geometric abstraction in the moment we see. This interaction completes our normal existence with the component of the "invisible" Paradoxically, the "invisible" here are the colored areas; they create a space that is not defined in terms of content and can therefore be interpreted, while the scenery of the individual figure conveys a clear narrative. The artist poses questions about the dimensions in which we perceive, move and orient ourselves.
Anna Lena Straube
Anna Lena Straube’s paintings radiate emotion and mystery, her figures moving through flickering, sometimes haunting narratives, their expressions and postures hinting at social webs and inner lives.
Lushly rendered in the faded sepia tones and pastels of vintage photographs, the paintings feel like portals to another plane. In a sense they are acts of translation, re-inventing the truth of Straube’s photographic source material in the sensual, illusory language of paint.
Current exhibition, Notes, on view March 6th - March 31st in St. Helena
The series of works "notes" attempts to combine abstract, monochrome colored areas and individual figures. Anna Lena Straube left out large areas of the motif from historical, photographic templates and filled them with generous, often three-colored color tones. On the other hand, the female figures who are alone are clearly in the foreground of the painting. The monochrome areas, with their rich color, form a great contrast to these realistically painted figures, which are only in colored shades of gray, and their surroundings. In this way, narrative reality mixes with geometric abstraction in the moment we see. This interaction completes our normal existence with the component of the "invisible" Paradoxically, the "invisible" here are the colored areas; they create a space that is not defined in terms of content and can therefore be interpreted, while the scenery of the individual figure conveys a clear narrative. The artist poses questions about the dimensions in which we perceive, move and orient ourselves.