Carolin Rechberg is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice unfolds at the crossroads of material, sensation, and idea. Born in Starnberg, Germany, she moves fluidly across a wide spectrum of artistic forms, including ceramics, drawing, installation, illustration, painting, performance, printmaking, photography, poetry, sculpture, sound art, textile design, and voice. For Rechberg, art is not confined to a single medium; it is an evolving field of inquiry shaped by touch, rhythm, and perception. Central to her philosophy is the belief that the act of making carries as much meaning as the completed work—sometimes more. Her process is immersive and multisensory, engaging body and mind in equal measure. Through this embodied approach, Rechberg explores transformation, vulnerability, and renewal, allowing each work to become both an object and an experience. Her art does not merely communicate ideas; it invites viewers to feel, reflect, and enter into states of inner movement and change.
A Fountain of Life (2026)
Mixed Media on Canvas
H 265 cm × W 211 cm × D 208 cm
In A Fountain of Life, Rechberg presents a monumental painting that expands beyond the conventional boundaries of the canvas. Measuring over two and a half meters in height, the work occupies space with architectural presence. The canvas appears to cascade outward onto the floor, dissolving the distinction between vertical and horizontal planes. This physical extension transforms the painting into an immersive environment rather than a static image.
The composition suggests a powerful waterfall or surge of liquid energy descending from a luminous, fiery canopy. The upper section glows with warm reds, oranges, and yellows, evoking heat, vitality, and ignition. These tones gradually give way to cooler whites, greys, and muted blues, creating a dynamic interplay between intensity and release. The surface is layered and gestural, with sweeping brushstrokes and textured passages that convey motion and force. The paint seems to flow, drip, and surge, reinforcing the imagery of a life-giving torrent.
The painting’s title implies renewal and generative energy, and this is echoed in its visual language. The waterfall motif can be read as both destructive and nurturing—erosion and birth intertwined. Water crashes downward, yet it also nourishes what lies beneath. At the base, the colors disperse into a reflective surface reminiscent of a pool, suggesting continuity and cyclical movement. The eye travels downward and outward, following the current, then returns upward to the radiant source.
Rechberg’s multidisciplinary sensibility is evident in how she approaches space and material. The canvas does not behave like a conventional rectangle; it becomes sculptural, almost theatrical. Viewers standing before it are enveloped by the scale and the implied motion. The work encourages a bodily response: one feels the rush of water, the weight of gravity, the shimmer of light. The painting is less an image to observe than an atmosphere to inhabit.
At a symbolic level, A Fountain of Life resonates with themes of transformation and spiritual awakening. The vertical descent from fiery brilliance to reflective calm can be interpreted as a passage from chaos to clarity, from intensity to integration. It suggests a source of vitality that pours continuously into lived experience. The work’s immersive quality reinforces Rechberg’s commitment to art as process—an unfolding, flowing event rather than a fixed endpoint. The viewer becomes part of the cycle, caught within the energetic exchange between color, movement, and space.
The Dying and Ascending Self / Shedding Skins to Rise to Life (2024)
AP Linocut Color Print on Paper
42 × 30 cm
In contrast to the monumental scale of A Fountain of Life, The Dying and Ascending Self / Shedding Skins to Rise to Lifeoperates within the intimate dimensions of printmaking. Yet despite its smaller size, the work carries an equally potent sense of transformation.
The linocut presents a stylized, multi-limbed human figure positioned against a radiant gradient background shifting from deep red at the base to golden yellow at the top. The figure appears layered or multiplied, with arms extending outward and upward in a gesture that evokes both surrender and ascent. Surrounding the body are circular forms—white orbs that suggest cells, stars, or seeds—scattered throughout the composition. Radiating lines burst outward, reinforcing a sense of expansion and energetic release.
The stark contrast between the white figure and the warm gradient field creates a dramatic visual tension. The body is rendered as a silhouette, stripped of individual detail, allowing it to function as a universal symbol rather than a portrait. The multiplicity of limbs suggests motion across time—past selves dissolving as new forms emerge. The title references shedding and rising, and the imagery reinforces this notion of metamorphosis. The self appears to fragment and multiply simultaneously, as though moving through stages of death and rebirth.
Printmaking, with its emphasis on carving, inking, and pressing, aligns conceptually with the theme of shedding. The act of cutting into the linoleum block mirrors the idea of removing layers to reveal something essential. Each print is both repetition and variation, embodying the cyclical rhythm of dissolution and renewal. The artist’s proof (AP) status underscores the process-oriented nature of the work, highlighting experimentation and refinement.
While A Fountain of Life externalizes transformation through elemental force, The Dying and Ascending Self internalizes it. The former immerses the viewer in a sweeping environment of movement and flow; the latter condenses the experience into a symbolic figure undergoing spiritual evolution. Together, the works reveal Rechberg’s sustained engagement with change as both a physical and existential phenomenon.
Across scale and medium, Carolin Rechberg explores life as a continuous process of becoming. Whether through cascading paint or carved lines, she articulates the tension between dissolution and emergence. Her works invite viewers to confront vulnerability, release old forms, and embrace renewal—reminding us that within every ending lies the possibility of ascent.
