Vita of Petra Amerell:

1962 born in Munich

1982–83 study of Art History and German studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich

1983–89 study at the Akademy of Fine Arts in Munich

since 1991 purchases by private and public collections

1995–98 temporary freelance in the stage designer team of Munich`s theatre
„Münchner Kammerspiele“

1998 Art Award of the City of Munich for the catalogue project
„The Night Right In Front of the Forests," which shows drawings after the play by Bernard-Marie Koltes

Petra Amerell lives and works in Munich und Zurich

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Wet Paint
On the paintings of Petra Amerell

It is not that easy to create a painting. The problem is less the white canvas than the invisible wire between the head and the hand. Of course, Petra Amerell spends a lot of time standing in front of the canvas reflecting on the painting, which is supposed to succeed but does not want to do so. Visualizing alone will never create a work of art. The head itself is not able to paint, neither is the hand. Although it stacks up layers of color, one on top of the other, scrapes them off again, dissolves them, renews them, the brush dripping paint over the canvas - it slides, spreads tracks of color, which appear thick or transparent. The hand works marvellously, the artist is - I dare to say - happy: But the next day her head complains, it cannot be done that way, the colors do not yet harmonize, this line still has too little energy, this colorfield is too small, the other one expands too much, this one lacks transparency and that one needs more power. In short: The work is still not a painting, it is just color on canvas. A painting, however, is always more, it is an organism of colors and forms, it´s about the artist´s feeling for applying paint, it breathes, it has been created through movement and with a sense for color. In the end, if successful, it has that certain kick, it has Swing.

It is a Sisyphean task, and that is what she loves: PAINTING. Each of her works is on its way for a very long time, first in the inside, then on the canvas. Petra Amerell´s paintings are slow starters. They might be unfinished for five weeks and then are completed in one hour. That seems to be her way of working. And this process of searching and discovering is visible in her paintings. There is a sparkle below the skin of paint which gleams through. These works are deeply transparent. They are layers of paint, yet so fresh in the end, because the end does not approach as a trickle of thin paint, but with a thrust of energy and vitality: Therefore each of Petra Amerell´s paintings is a powerful act of color.

Silvio Blatter, writer and artist

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Solo Shows:

2007 Gallery Kaysser, Munich
2007 Gallery Ueker & Ueker, Basel
2006 Gallery Kunstreich, Bern
2006 Gallery Carla Renggli, Zug
2005 AU PREMIER, main station Zurich
2004 Gallery Schneider, Bonn
2004 Gallery Kunstreich, Bern
2004 Gallery Werner Bommer, Zurich
2003 Gallery O, Schaffhausen
2002 Gallery Kunstreich, Bern
2002 Gallery Marie-Louise Wirth, Zurich/Hochfelden
2002 Kunstraum Kanton Schwyz, Einsiedeln
2002 Gallery Rothe, Frankfurt
2001 Gallery Marie-Louise Wirth, Zurich/Hochfelden
2000 Tafidus Treuhand, Zurich/Zollikon
2000 LV 1871, Regina - Haus, Munich
1998 Art & Be Gallery, Munich
1997 Kempinski Hotel Airport, Munich
1997 Marquardt Ausstellungen, Munich
1996 Kunstforum Arabellapark, Munich
1994 Art & Be Gallery, Munich
1992 City Hall of Garching/Munich
1991 Gallery Golart, Munich

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Group shows and art fairs:

2007 Art fair: BERLINER KUNSTSALON, Berlin, Gallery Kaysser
2007 „European Salon“, Art Cabinet Nantucket,
2007 Kunst im Karrée, Munich
2007 Art fair: art KARLSRUHE, Gallery Werner Bommer
2006 Looking back – 25 Years Gallery Marie-Louise Wirth, Gallery M.- L. Wirth,
Zurich/Hochfelden
2005 Summer Exhibition, Gallery Ueker & Ueker, Basel
2005 Kunst im Karrée, Munich
2004 Gallery Marie-Louise Wirth, Zurich/Hochfelden
2004 Art fair: KUNST ZÜRICH, Gallery Werner Bommer
2004 Art fair: art frankfurt, Gallery Rothe
2004 „Kleinkram oder was sonst untergeht“, Wirtschaftshaus Unterhammer
2003 Gallery Kunstreich, Bern
2003 Gallery Marie-Louise Wirth, Zurich/Hochfelden
2003 Art fair: art frankfurt, Gallery Rothe
2003 Art fair: KUNST ZÜRICH, Gallery Werner Bommer
2002 Gallery Kunstreich, Bern
2002 Gallery Marie-Louise Wirth, Zurich/Hochfelden
2002 Artists of the Gallery, Gallery Werner Bommer, Zurich
2002 Accrochage, Gallery Carla Renggli, Zug
2002 Art fair: art frankfurt, Gallery Rothe
2002 Art fair: KUNST ZÜRICH, Gallery Werner Bommer
2001 Paare, Gallery O, Schaffhausen
2001 Art fair: KUNST ZÜRICH, Gallery Werner Bommer
2000 Künstler der Gallery, Gallery Werner Bommer, Zurich
1998 Kunstforum Arabellapark, Munich
1998 Space and Tracks, Aspekte Gallery Gasteig, Munich
1997 Art & Be Gallery, Munich
1991 Autorengalerie 1, Munich
1990 Autorengalerie 1, Munich
1988 Hospital of Harlaching, Munich