The work of Hannah Kaplan presented in this exhibition seems to combine different founts of inspiration or express a conflict. The black and white oil paintings series show very little features and often using the back part of the canvas, a resource used to be subtle by hinting at something more. However, we will also be displaying her mix media works inspired by the ceremonial masks from the Alutiiq native tribes from Kodiak Island in Alaska, where she is from. These small format works are made with organic elements such as wood and feathers and transmit a sort of ritualistic feeling that powerfully impose itself to the viewer. Finally, the crucial pieces of the exhibition consists on a series of sculpture and hyper-colourful paintings on wood dedicated to the bear.

This heterogeneous mix of themes and techniques hides a deep net that joins them all together. Hannah is performing a personal search, going through the different aspects of her identity and vital memories and turning them into art expressions. The bear, although a special animal for the Island of Kodiak, appears deprived of its original connotations and becomes a means for the artist to articulate her own emotions and to be used as the guide of this search.

Hannah Kaplan was raised on Kodiak Island, Alaska and lives and works in Berlin since 2009. Her work is highly influenced by the handicraft of the the Alutiiq, the native inhabitants of Kodiak. Growing up she learned wood carving techniques and the different meanings of the native masks. Self-taught and always on the search for new ways of expressing. She is a defender of working closely with the materials and the use of rough techniques that are more related with craftsmanship than with the use of digital media.

This is Hannah Kaplan´s first public showing.

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