Petra Frey: Glas–Licht

What do you see here?

A shimmering and glistening of lights and reflections that combine to form a floating ring in front of an infinite space. Petra Frey's painting moves in intermediate worlds, between reality and illusion, figuration and abstraction. Glass is her subject, the basic material of her painting, to which she has consistently devoted herself for years. Glass is many things, viscous and crystalline, fragile and resistant, cold and hard, appears light and yet can become as heavy as stone. At the same time, the material invites metaphorical and spiritual charges. This is not the case with Petra Frey, who has moved from the depiction of fragmented parts to refractions, individual views and overall representations. She favours a free interplay of mirroring and reflections that dissolve in space. Her depictions emerge from a mostly dark background, which allows her to play with reflections and transparency and even unusual light phenomena. By liberating the light, as it were, Petra Frey dematerialises the depicted glass objects through her painting process, almost as if she were releasing the glass from its representational nature in order to transform it into pure light.

Exhibition: Gallery of the Kreissparkasse Esslingen-Nürtingen, 3/6 - 25/7/2025