Maya Frodeman Gallery is pleased to present Fuzzy Logic, a solo exhibition of drawings and vitreous enamel works by German artist Astrid Köppe. Köppe creates precise yet enigmatic compositions that invite viewers into a space between recognition and uncertainty.
Working at an intimate scale, Köppe’s drawings often begin with careful observation of the ordinary. Rather than working directly from photographs, she carries mental snapshots of objects and forms encountered in everyday life until they are filtered through memory and reinterpreted on the page. The resulting images are rendered with striking clarity while resisting easy identification. Köppe intentionally avoids titles, encouraging viewers to rely on their own perception and imagination when encountering the work.
The exhibition’s title, Fuzzy Logic, refers to the state of cognitive dissonance viewers often experience while looking at Köppe’s subjects. Presented with the precision of scientific or anatomical illustrations, the forms appear as though they should represent something specific, yet their identity remains elusive. The result is a tension between certainty and ambiguity, and for Köppe, this moment of confusion is valuable: it prompts closer looking and opens the possibility of seeing ordinary things in new ways.
Alongside drawings, the exhibition includes Köppe’s vitreous enamel works, which translate her visual language into a large-scale and layered process. A technique she began in 2005, the enamels allow her to create her signature biomorphic shapes on the flat white plane she sees in her mind’s eye without viewers or critics questioning her lack of background, as they did in viewing her paintings. Often developed from a separate body of sketches, the enamel pieces are built through stenciled layers of color fired onto steel. Despite their material complexity, the works maintain a light presence on the wall, allowing form and composition to remain the central focus against a neutral background.
In Fuzzy Logic, Köppe invites viewers to slow down and embrace ambiguity, transforming the familiar into something quietly strange and newly wondrous.
Astrid Köppe was born in Köthen, Germany, in 1974. She studied a Braunschweig University of Art, Brunswick, Germany, where she earned her diploma in Fine Art with Meisterschüler honors in 1999. Köppe has completed a number of residencies, including those at Lost Generation Art Space / Goethe-Institut, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2010, 2011-2012), and at the Young Eun Museum for Contemporary Art, Gwangju-si, South Korea (2011). She is widely exhibited in Europe and Asia. Recent solo exhibitions include Seizan Gallery, New York, USA, Gallery Sekiryu, Matsumoto, Japan, Galerie Carolyn Heinz, Hamburg, Germany, Arte Giani, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Galerie Inga Kondeyne, Berlin, Germany, and Maya Frodeman Gallery, Jackson Hole, USA. Her recent group exhibitions include Art Osaka, Nakanoshima, Japan and Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany. Köppe’s work can be found in the public collections of Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany, Berlinische Galerie – Museum of Modern Art, Berlin, Germany, and the collection of Young Eun Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwangju-si, South Korea, among others. She is the recipient of the Junge Akademie, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany scholarship. Köppe lives and works in Berlin.
