Rosa Loy: Silent Work
Gallery Baton is pleased to announce 《Silent Work》 by Rosa Loy (b. 1958) from 23rd April to 30th May 2026. Rosa Loy, a painter and a leading figure of the New Leipzig School (NLS) alongside Neo Rauch, presents a new body of work shaped by the quiet yet transformative rhythms of moving between studio and home. As the title suggests, these works are grounded in her experience of the stillness and unexpected sense of calm that emerges from this daily routine, serving as a generative force within her practice.
Leipzig’s role as a key center of Socialist Realism in the former East Germany is closely tied to Saxony’s legacy as a major site of 19th-century German Romanticism. This longstanding painterly tradition has played a significant role in shaping Loy’s artistic language, further developed through her formal training in Berlin and Leipzig. The recurring presence and careful rendering of flowers, plants, and interwoven landscapes—rooted in her experience as a horticulturalist—resonate with the Romantic tradition’s enduring reverence for nature. At the same time, the influence of female Surrealist painters such as Dorothea Tanning(1910 - 2012) informs Loy’s practice. While engaging with the representational framework of modern European painting, she actively reconfigures it, advancing a pictorial structure in which women emerge as central and self-directed subjects.
The ambiguity surrounding the temporal and situational context of the figures in her work reflects a key aspect of Surrealism, while also aligning closely with Loy’s process of conceiving and translating images onto canvas. The artist has long been drawn to moments of voluntary withdrawal from the complexities of the external world—often described as time spent alone in the studio—which she regards as conditions that heighten her imagination and deepen her engagement with the subconscious. This dreamlike atmosphere is further intensified through her use of casein, a classical medium historically associated with fresco painting. Though less commonly used today, casein is valued for its fast-drying properties and matte surface. It allows Loy to maintain a consistent chromatic structure across the canvas while enabling the subtle modulation of tones through her own mixing of pigments.
Women are the primary subjects of Loy’s work. The artist has recalled that these figures may be connected to imaginary companions she created in childhood after relocating to Leipzig and parting from friends of her own age. In her paintings, women appear imbued with a self-assured confidence or positioned as active agents at the center of unfolding actions. Occupying the pictorial field with clarity and presence—dressed in vivid colors and marked by resolute expressions—they reflect Loy’s sustained interest in envisioning women as autonomous subjects within an idealized social framework.
Rosa Loy lives and works in Leipzig. She studied horticulture at Humboldt University Berlin and completed her BFA and MFA at the Academy of Visual Art in Leipzig. She has participated in numerous exhibitions at international art museums including Kunstverein Freunde Aktueller Kunst (2026), Kunsthalle Rostock (2025), Museum of Fine Arts Liberec (2024), Space K Seoul (2021), Museum der Stadt Bensheim (2020), Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2019), Fondazione Coppola (2019), Gutshaus Steglitz (2019), Drents Museum (2017), Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (2012) and more. Her works are included in the collection of major art institutions and organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig; Deutsche Bank; Busan Museum of Art in Korea.
