Biography

“A painting should resonate and be imbued with an inner glow.”
Wassily Kandinsky
Short Biography
The love of art and the need to express myself through colours and compositions have always accompanied me. Photographs, nature drawings, nude and portrait painting developed while training as a textile and design engineer have helped me develop a handwriting that is as precise artistically as it is sound on an artisanal level. Like many artists of the 20th and 21st century, I have turned from figurative painting first to collage and then to abstraction.
I reduce to the essential: shapes and the substance of colours. My means of expression are surface structures and textures, strong contrasts, at times expressive colour choices and play with colour surfaces that partly conceal, partly reveal what lies beneath. In order for the complexity and optical depth of the paintings to become perceptible, parts of the canvas remain open. To apply layers, I use paintbrushes and palette knives, oil crayons, pencil and pigments.
Travelling is my source of inspiration: I am guided by memories of a place’s colours, its nature, particular patterns of light and shadow. My artistic practice is a painted response to the disrespect of the environment and the fast pace of the increasingly digitalized world; an expression of my desire that we develop respect for the surrounding world and that we recognize the urgency of a sustainable protection of nature. The paintings’ titles refer to those sources of inspiration, subject areas and concerns. More importantly, though, my colour worlds are meant to invite viewers to go on a sensuous journey of discovery and to inspire thoughts and ideas of their own.
Sonja Kalb, 2021
Current & Upcoming
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Wetter. Das kleine Format
6 December 2022 – 17 January 2023
Opening on Tuesday, 6 December at 18:00
Finissage on Tuesday, 17 January 2023 at 18:00
Opening hours by appointment only: +49 211 35 64 71
Künstlerverein Malkasten
Jacobistraße 6a
40211 Düsseldorf
DE
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Orange the World- end violence against women and girl
Bernd C. Dietrich, Stephi Friedrich, Sonja Kalb, Stephan Marienfeld, Sacha Nordmeyer, Christoph Pöggeler and others
25 November 2022 – 10 December 2022
Opening on Friday, 25 November 2022, 18:00
Galerie Kellermann
Heinrich-Heine-Allee 12
40212 Düsseldorf
DE
Galerie Kellermann (Oberkassel)
Cheruskerstr. 105
40545 Düsseldorf
DE
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International Art Fair Innsbruck
27 – 30 October 2022
Open daily from 11 am to 7 pm, Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm
Preview on Wednesday, 26 October 2022, 17:30
Olympiahalle Innsbruck
Olympiastr. 10
6020 Innsbruck
AT
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OpenArtCode Tokyo
9. September – 17 September 2022
Opening on 9 September 2022
Metropolitan Art Museum
8-36 Uenokoen,Taito City
Tokyo 110-0007
JP
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Sonja Kalb: Traumland
8 – 18 September 2022
Opening on Thursday, 8 September 2022, 18:30
With an introduction by Frank Schablewski
Finissage on Sunday, 18. September 2022, 15:30
With a poetic finale by Joachim Poet Harms
Ross31
Roßstraße 31
40476 Düsseldorf
DE
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Sonja Kalb
German/English
22 × 28 cm
27 pages, numerous color images, softcover
Galerie Kellermann, July 2022
Edited by Matthias Kellermann
Text by Elfi Zimmerling
Translated by Cornelius O‘Shea Arnow
Supported by Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
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FORGOTTEN REALITIES
Agnes Toth, Alexandra Westermark, Arjeta Mala, Belinha Silva, Cathy Ghyoot, Conie Senac, Dan Harnett, Darko Lesjak, Garrick Arnold, Jonathan Le Roux, Karen Chappelow, Kari Veastad, Kathrin Broden, Mara Torres León, Michael Mihangel, Miu Shinoda, Nicola Heim, Paulie X, Sandrine Langlade, Sonja Kalb, Susana Casillas, Veronica Villareal Sada
27 May 2022 - 27 June 2022
Opening on Friday, 27 May 2022, 18:00
Monat Gallery
Calle de Estudios 7
28012 Madrid
SP
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Abstract Landscape
Bernd C. Dietrich, Stephi Friedrich , Angela Glajcar, Sonja Kalb, Jérémy Lenoir, Alberto Saka, Sascha Nordmeyer, Reiner Seliger, David Speybrouk
4 March 2022 – 10. April 2022
Opening on Friday, 4 March 2022, 18:00
Galerie Kellermann
Heinrich-Heine-Allee 12
40212 Düsseldorf
DE
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OpenArtCode Paris
15–20 February 2022
Opening on 15 Februar 2022
Grand Palais Ephémère
Avenue Pierre Loti
Champ-de-Mars
75007 Paris
FR
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Transparenz. Das kleine Format
7 December 2021 – 18 January 2022
Künstlerverein Malkasten
Jacobistraße 6a
40211 Düsseldorf
DE