BETTINA SCHOLZ

Bettina Scholz constructs material explorations through multisheet glass compositions, where alchemical gestures – dripping, spraying, layering, collaging – assemble dense pictorial ecosystems. Inspired by science fiction, Gothic painting, and musical abstraction, her works feel both cosmic and microscopic. At the heart of Scholz’s process is glass, chosen not merely as support but as carrier, filter, and framing device. Scale becomes ambiguous as the glass simultaneously resembles a petri dish in a lab or a window to a vast desert. Drawing inspiration from film soundtracks and speculative and futuristic narratives such as Blade Runner 2049, Scholz translates audible atmospheres into iridescent hues. The resulting visual fields are at once lush and ominous: baroque-like surfaces crackle with chthonic energy, evoking dystopian landscapes that hover between attraction and unease. Scholz’s play with coexisting, sometimes surprising juxtaposition derives from her upbringing in the GDR, where her life was defined by contradiction: East and West, trust and suspicion, esotericism and evidence.  In works like Intro (2025), pigment and glass intertwine across layers, generating textured resonances that intensify warm tones and heighten atmospheric density. The weave of light, shadow, and pigment creates a relational space in which each layer cannot be viewed individually. Between harmony and spectral corruption, the materials override one another. Scholz establishes a form of painting that is less object than resonance, alive, full of conflict, and generative force.