PROPHECIES
Is there such a thing as free will? Can we influence it, or is the future
predetermined? The women appear focused, yet uncertain. Do they actually know something – or are we projecting meaning onto their images? Their prophecies appear like jewels, like constellations, like codes, like foreign scripts on skin and space. Are they circuit boards of thought, maps of the unconscious? The prophecy remains open. Perhaps the knowledge does not lie visibly before us, but possibly within ourselves – fragmentary, difficult to access, without a clear translation.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
”I am drawn to places and situations where the rules are unclear or ambiguous. They make me believe that beneath the enigmatic surface a message awaits me, one that I wish to discover and decipher. This process of deciphering enriches me. Consequently, I also consider it important to confront the viewer of my work with in-between worlds that lack unambiguous clarity, in order to encourage them to engage with themselves”. (Merete de Kruyf)
Merete de Kruyf (b. 1965, Hamburg, Germany) is a contemporary painter based in Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Germany. Working with a combination of painterly, aleatoric surfaces and photographic prints mounted on panels, she is best known for her multilayered works, characterized by a reduced visual language, a restrained blue palette, and atmospheric lighting with a melancholic and subtly surreal mood. Depicted enigmatic figures often appear to be floating, fragmented or
withdrawn — not quite here, not fully anchored within themselves. In this state of being in-between, questions of identity, connectedness and isolation come to the fore. Her works are characterised by a distinctive interplay between abstraction and figuration, creating ambiguous narrative spaces that invite contemplation.
De Kruyf’s work explores aspects of an unstable self, shaped by memories, perception and reflection, and expresses a desire to capture the fleeting and the transcendent. Her work is also shaped by the question of the significance of images in themselves and her exploration of materiality and texture. These interests merge into a process of self-integration and inner transformation, which de Kruyf regards as a fundamental and indispensable human task for confronting the challenges of modernity. Her body of work includes the award-winning series ‘Prophecies’ (2025), and the series ‘Watermarks’ (2025), that expanded her technical approach and led to increased recognition within the institutional context.
Merete de Kruyf has exhibited at Galerie Ute Brennwald in Kiel (Germany), GEDOK M-V in Schwerin (Germany), BIK Galerie 149 in Bremerhaven (Germany), and Kunstpool Galerie am Ehinger Tor in Ulm (Germany). She has been presented in the DA! Art Award in Düsseldorf (Germany), the Art Competition of the North Church in Hamburg (Germany), and the Fringe Arts Bath Festival in Bath, (United Kingdom).