Name: What an old Woman Will Wear
Start: 2026-05-19T13:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-06-07T20:00:00+02:00
Location: Kasseler Kunstverein e. V.

What an old Woman Will Wear at the Kassel Art Association: Painting as Space, Language as Image

With What an old Woman Will Wear, the Kassel Art Association presents an exhibition where Tanja Nis-Hansen disengages painting from the flat plane and transforms it into a precisely composed spatial installation. 30 large-format oil paintings form the acronym GRWM and convert a social media phenomenon into a physically experienceable artistic setting. Between text, performance, and visual condensation, an art experience emerges that urgently questions vulnerability, mortality, and the imagery of everyday life.

Painting between Ornament, Sign, and Sculpture

Nis-Hansen works in the expanded field of painting. Her images are not merely carriers of motifs but visual and semantic bodies in space. In Kassel, the oil paintings become monumental letters that resemble a typographic landscape, charging the exhibition space with presence, weight, and rhythm. The contemplation of the artwork reveals an artist who uses language as ornament while simultaneously making its fragility visible.

Vulnerability, Mental States, and the Aesthetics of the Everyday

The focal point of the exhibition is the question of how physical and emotional states can be represented beyond simple attributions. Nis-Hansen combines figurative allusions, text-based settings, and performative modes of thought into a multifaceted artistic narrative. The exhibition atmosphere feels both concentrated and open: colors, shapes, and the spatial arrangement continuously draw attention anew to the relationship between image, body, and societal pressure.

GRWM: From Digital Ritual to Collective Gesture

GRWM, short for Get Ready With Me, stands for intimacy, self-presentation, and preparation in the digital realm. In the exhibition, this logic is detached from the screen context and transformed into a collective, almost ceremonial gesture. This creates a discursive art experience that connects contemporary media culture with art historical reflection and poses the question of how images negotiate belonging, care, and staging today.

A Look at Working Conditions in the Art World

Additionally, the artist sells screen-printed T-shirts that refer to precarious working conditions in the art world. This expands the exhibition into a social and economic dimension. Art is not conceived here as a closed aesthetic space but as a critical practice that makes the conditions of its own production visible. This is precisely where its authority and contemporary relevance lie.

Kassel Art Association as a Venue for Contemporary Art

Since 1835, the Kassel Art Association has stood for the mediation of contemporary art and offers a striking environment for solo and group exhibitions in its centrally located exhibition space. For visitors, this means: an attentive, accessible art experience with a clear focus on current debates, curatorial precision, and cultural education. The exhibition invites visitors to not only observe painting but to traverse it as an aesthetic experience in space.

Conclusion: What an old Woman Will Wear promises an intellectually and sensually rich exhibition between painting, text, and performance. Anyone interested in contemporary art, art theory, and the poetic power of images should definitely experience this show live in Kassel.