Arts Thread

Melanie Bäreis
Master of Arts

Friedrich-alexander-university of erlangen-nuremberg

Specialisms: Painting / Fine Art / Painting

Location: Berlin, Germany

melanie-breis1 ArtsThread Profile
Friedrich-alexander-university of erlangen-nuremberg

Melanie Bäreis

Melanie Bäreis ArtsThread Profile

First Name: Melanie

Last Name: Bäreis

Specialisms: Painting / Fine Art / Painting

Sectors:

My Location: Berlin, Germany

University / College: Friedrich-alexander-university of erlangen-nuremberg

Course / Program Title: Master of Arts

About

Melanie Bäreis (b. 1997) is an ultra-contemporary German painter whose primary medium is oil painting. Having completed a master's degree at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, she deconstructs spatial narratives in her figurative works. Her work has established a strong institutional presence, evidenced by international exhibitions and inclusion in permanent collections, such as the museum of the Centro de la Comunicación in Huelva, Spain. An alumna of the international artist-in-residence fellowship at the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus (Kebbel Villa / Villa Paula, Czech Republic), her artistic recognition is further confirmed by nominations for major awards, including the Albertus-Kunstpreis, the KiR-Kunstpreis, the Kunstpreis der Werner Brand Kunststiftung, the Marktheidenfelder Kunstpreis, and the Hans-Jürgen-Imiela-Gedächtnispreis.Portrait: Max Sonnenschein

This collection of ten artworks showcases Melanie Bäreis’s signature ultra-contemporary practice, operating at the intersection of figurative oil painting and magic realism. Each artwork is hand-painted in oil on canvas. The series "Evidence of Time" understands the handpainted image as a timeless space of resonance, transforming the canvas into a metaphysical arena where time softly pleats into layers. The title serves as a metaphor for how only a painting is able to create these distinctive symbolic, and luminous focal points, from which a faint, almost surreal whisper - Susurros - travels through epochs. At its core, the work series evocatively renders how the painting is able to create the exact, visceral moment when a viewer, across years and distances, looks at the work and feels naturally drawn into the canvas by a subtle, yet energetic susurration. All of the ten large-format canvases function as sensitive projection screens for contemporary existential questions, fundamentally challenging the perspective of both the protagonists and the observers. The works, driven by their vigorous perspectives, capture the raw human sensation of what feeling alive means. Within these moving, multi-layered color spaces, the shifting perspectives in "Evidence of Time" evoke a deafening silence that is full of encapsulated felt emotions, building a profound bridge between the artist’s introspection and the world of the beholder, while unlocking the potential to recognize the self within the other. Ultimately, one must never forget that the canvas is also always looking back at you. Or perhaps it is not merely an external gaze, but rather you yourself, standing inside the painting, looking out, eyeing yourself and everything you are.