At The Wand, the pint sized gallery nestled just around the corner from the Presidential Palace, Melissa Steckbauer and Alex Tennigkeit have launched into their first co-curatorial venture. Up the winding staircase you will find two adjoining rooms, each wall shuddering under the sheer weight of the art that rests upon it. Yet this is not chaos, but helter-skelter charm.

 Jack Oakley enjoys Jean-Ulrick Desert’s piece BLACKOUT. Photograph by Morgan Meaker

The twenty artists, who participate in the exhibition entitled Show Therapy, present an eclectic mix of work; from abstract to figurative, video to sculpture, photography to embroidery.  They recognise the psychological limitations caused by fear and its ability to stop even a vivacious life in its tracks, rendering it static and paralyzed. The pieces express, in ways which range from the personal and the political to the poetic, a way in which to overcome fear, liberating us from its grasp.

For me, the piece which spoke the most was Sarah Goodrum’s Untitled. The first photograph she ever took stands humbly near the far window, quiet and unassuming. The lens peers from the walls which seem to close in around her, forming a border of black. Yet the picture’s focus is redemptive as she peers up to a blue and perfect sky, bright white clouds floating, weightless. Vast and limitless it signals that there is always hope, even in a world of fear and darkness. 

• The Wand, Cognitio Arsphobiae: Show Therapy, Until July 29th. Opening times: 21st-22nd, 28th-29th; 1pm – 6pm and by appointment. (Price Range: Only selected pieces for sale, berlin-artparasites estimates: €500-€2,000)

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Painting by Catrin Walz Stein

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