Anja Wülfing

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Anja WŸlfing, featured in AQ Volume VII, lives and works in Cologne. After completing her graphic design training with Udo Klein in Cologne, she moved to Switzerland to study communication design at the Art Center College of Design (Europe), graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. After working in several advertising agencies, she founded the graphic design agencies Planet Pixel and Weigelstein in Cologne. Her work is featured in the graphic collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg.


Artist Statement

My work centres around quiet, introspective portraiture. I paint soft, often androgynous faces with closed eyes. Figures that are less about identity than presence, less about narrative than stillness. These are not portraits in the traditional sense. They offer space rather than explanations.

Over time, my style has shifted. Earlier series explored symbolism and expressive colour spaces. In recent months, however, my work has become quieter. I use muted tones; the portraits are restrained. The faces are painted with care and detail. Hair and clothing, by contrast, are often simplified and kept in soft, abstract fields of colour. Instead of telling stories, I try to hold emotion in their stillness.

Each painting begins with careful planning. I think through the composition, colour palette, and structure before starting. The process is cautious, and I work at a slow pace. My aim is to make stillness and serenity tangible and to offer the viewer space to pause and reflect.

I am drawn to the tension between distance and connection. These portraits seem reserved at first, but they radiate a quiet openness that is unobtrusive but intense. It is as if they invite the viewer to look behind the surface. This creates a special tension between distance and closeness. They are not made to impress, and they do not explain, but they invite.

In a time of visual noise and constant demand for attention, I believe in the quiet power of restraint. These works resist restlessness. They ask for time and offer a moment of silence—not to be consumed, but to be felt.

This is how I understand presence in painting. It does not need to be loud. It has to create a feeling of inwardness and calm.


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