Call of the Void

Damp's talent for painting was already evident in her childhood, encouraged by her village school teacher and later by an artist at the Berlin Weissensee Art Academy.


Her artistic development took her to the Berlin University of the Arts, where she studied under Prof. Hans-Jürgen Diehl, a proponent of critical realism who later pursued abstract, non-narrative painting. These two influences – the narrative influence of her childhood and the abstract perspective of her student days – remain the pillars of her work to this day and give her painting a unique aesthetic appeal.

Andrea Damp's works are created in a slow, time-consuming process in which she applies aqueous solutions of acrylic paint to the canvas step by step and layer by layer. Different consistencies of the paint interact with each other, and the result is checked after each drying step.

There is a constant dialogue with art history, with composition and color theory playing an important role. The influences range from Jackson Pollock's gestural feats of strength to the works of the CoBrA artists' association. But while at first glance Damp’s works have little in common with the heroic works of the „post-war“ era, they develop their own abstract quality in the process of creation.

Andrea Damp departs from historical paths to playfully and amazedly enrich her works with representational elements. Over the years, she has built up a wealth of images from which she draws the representational components of her paintings. In a world flooded with images, she uses this abundance to create an atlas that provides suggestions and answers to complex questions. Figures and objects are inserted into the painting through blending and incorporation, leading to a process of transformation.

When a motif is found that forms a harmonious cosmos with the underpainting, it is integrated into the composition in the finest oil painting technique. Small details can completely transform a picture and create a narrative world full of expression and emotion. Andrea Damp's artistic approach and biography are interwoven in a unique way, so a shadow of her personal history hangs over each work.