Tanja Selzer
For more than twenty years, Tanja Selzer has developed a painterly practice that continually moves between representation and dissolution, exploring the possibilities of perception. Her works often originate from photographs, memories or direct observations of nature. During the painting process, however, these points of departure gradually detach themselves from their concrete appearance and evolve into an autonomous pictorial reality.
In her earlier bodies of work, Selzer explored corporeality, intimacy and the ways in which images create proximity and distance. Human figures did not function as narrative protagonists but rather as projection surfaces for questions of closeness, desire and identity. Her paintings resist fixed interpretation while simultaneously challenging the role of the viewer.
In recent years, this artistic inquiry has increasingly shifted towards the natural world. Human figures have given way to landscapes, animals and, above all, plants. Her focus is now less on human relationships than on the processes of becoming, growth and decay. It is not the underlying artistic enquiry that has changed, but rather the field of motifs through which Selzer pursues it.
Nature therefore appears in her work not as a botanical subject but as a living network of relationships. Forms grow, overlap, dissolve and re-emerge. Representation remains recognisable throughout, yet never fixes the viewer’s gaze. Instead, Selzer creates pictorial spaces in which colour, light and movement themselves become carriers of atmosphere and meaning.
Despite the evolution of her work over time, the underlying artistic investigation remains remarkably consistent. Selzer’s painting explores the transitions between what is visible and what can be remembered, between representation and dissolution, between perception and imagination. Characteristic of her work is the combination of remarkable painterly precision with a visual language that remains deliberately open, inviting viewers to form their own associations.
Biography
Tanja Selzer was born in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, in 1970. She studied Design at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences under Alice Choné, Elisabeth Thoma, Ehrhard Göttlicher and Hartmut Gudenau. After working as a graphic designer, she has been practising as a freelance painter since 2005. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 2003.
Since 2005, her works have been exhibited both in Germany and abroad, including at the Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin, the Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong and the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, and are held in public and private collections.
The artist is a member of the MalerinnenNetzWerk Berlin–Leipzig and Saloon Berlin.
Further information and projects about the artist here.
Exhibitions:
- 2026 „LIAISONS“, nüüd.berlin gallery, double exposition with Wolfgang Flad
- 2026 „Faire Abstraction“, Le Manoir Centre d:Art, Mouthier-Haute-Pierre, France, group exhibition
- 2026 „In My Eye“, GRÖLLE passprojects, Wuppertal, group exhibition
- 2026 “Horsing Around 3”, The grass is Greener, Leipzig, group exhibition
- 2026 “VERTICAL HORIZONS”, nüüd.berlin gallery, Berlin, group exhibition
- 2026 „Signal Interference“, 532 Gallery, Basel, group exhibition
- 2025 „Silent Moments Sparkling“, Galerie im Kloster – Kunstverein Ribnitz-Damgarten, Ribnitz-Damgarten, group exhibition
- 2025 „Intimität – Queere Kunst Der Gegenwart“, Kunstmuseum der Stadt Albstadt, Albstadt, group exhibition
- 2025, “In Bloom”, 532 Gallery, Basel, group exhibition
- 2025, “ZOOOM. Personal is Political “, Galerie Miejska Arsenal, Poznań, group exhibition
- 2025 „Berliner Realistinnen. 65 Jahre Haus am Lützowplatz“, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin, group exhibition
- 2024 „Fast paradiesisch“, Galerie Leuenroth, Frankfurt a.M., double exhibition with Laura Eckert
- 2024 nüüd.berlin gallery – „Wild Claims“, single exhibition
- 2024 Galerie Leuenroth, Frankfurt a.M. – „More than one“ – group exhibition
- 2023 Michaela Helfrich Galerie, Berlin – „Hungry for Love“ – group exhibition
- 2023 Goethe-Institut Hongkong – „The Female Gaze“- group exhibition
- 2022 Framed, Berlin – „On a lake in a room“ – single exhibition
- 2022 Polarraum, Hamburg – „I thought I was an Alien“ – group exhibition
- 2021 Galerie Mirko Mayer, Köln – „Identity“ – group exhibition
- 2021 Potemka und KunstKraftWerk, Leipzig – „Querulantin“ – group exhibition
- 2019 Galerie Martina Kaiser, Köln – „The male muse“ – double exhibition with Miriam Vlaming
- 2018 Kornhausgalerie Weingarten, Weingarten – „Unusual Flowers“ – single exhibition
- 2018 Ausstellungshalle 1a, Frankfurt a.M. – „Painting XXL“ – group exhibition
- 2018 532 gallery, New York City – „ten years after“ – group exhibition
- 2017 Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg – „Ladies Night“ – group exhibition
- 2017 Kunsthalle der Sparkassenstiftung, Lüneburg – „Painting XX“ – group exhibition
- 2017 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York City – „Winter Salon“ – group exhibition
- 2016 Polarraum Hamburg, Hamburg – „Quantum Levitation“ – group exhibition
- 2015 Janine Bean Gallery, Berlin – „Lights and Shadows“ – group exhibition
- 2014 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York City, „meet me in the trees“ – single exhibition
- 2013 Janine Bean Gallery, Berlin – „Sweet Lies“ – single exhibition
- 2012 Janine Bean Gallery, Berlin – „Sub rosa“ – single exhibition
- 2012 Galerie Karin Sutter, Basel – „Mind Candy“ – Einzelausstellung
- 2011 Georg-Kolbe-Museum, Berlin – „Hot-Spot Berlin – Eine Momentaufnahme“ – group exhibition
- 2010 Janine Bean Gallery, Berlin – „Give me your red“ – single exhibition
- 2010 HSH Nordbank, Hamburg – „Nordschau IV“ – group exhibition
- 2009 Verve Gallery, Berlin – „Surface“ – group exhibition
- 2009 mühlfeld + stohrer, Frankfurt a.M. – „8 Years Gallery“ – group exhibition
- 2008 members Art Award 2008, Special Exhibition at ART FAIR 21, Köln – group exhibition
- 2007 Gallery Andreas Engler, Berlin – „New Works“ – single exhibition
- 2006 Gallery Andreas Engler, Berlin – „Full coverage“ – single exhibition
