Filling Gaps

The work of Franziska Krumbachner (born in 2002) is rooted in a deeply introspective and autobiographical approach. It resembles a diary driven by the urgency to give a tangible form to lived experience. Paintings and drawings assemble fragments of an often traumatic memory, as the artist confronts her inner wounds. “I am an oil painter, and my art is much more than just a form of expression—it is my language, my anchor. […] It helps me make the unspeakable visible and navigate a world that often feels overwhelming.” (Statement collected on the occasion of the group exhibition And This is Us 2025 – Young Artists Based in Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany, 2025). Recurring motifs in her work—car interiors, narrow corridors, children, curled-up bodies, distorted faces—originate in dreams and memories that resurface like flashbacks. Each image, each vision, evokes an implicit event, a story that can be sensed without ever fully revealing itself, yet whose emotional stakes assert themselves unmistakably. Everything is suggested: a table, empty chairs, a house, a simple face are enough to powerfully convey solitude, pain, and fragility. This is where the intensity of her work lies, in its narrative dimension born from the tension between what is revealed and what is repressed. Franziska Krumbachner studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, Germany. Her work has been presented notably in the group exhibition And This Is Us 2025 – Young Artists Based in Frankfurt at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 2025. Filling Gaps is her first-ever gallery exhibition.