The Nature of Light

Bremond Capela is pleased to present The Nature of Light, a solo exhibition by Annabell Häfner.

Annabell Häfner’s paintings unfold in a suspended space where landscape, architecture, and atmosphere coexist without ever fully stabilising. At the core of her practice lies color, used not as a decorative element but as a primary means of constructing space and emotion. Through color, Häfner builds environments that are felt as much as they are seen, inviting the viewer into fields of perception rather than into clearly defined places.

Light plays a central role in this body of work, not as a rupture but as an extension of this chromatic exploration. It operates as a structuring force that modulates how color behaves, how depth is suggested, and how space unfolds across the surface. Shadows, dusk-like tones, and subtle shifts in luminosity guide the viewer’s eye, shaping the atmospheric conditions of each painting rather than describing a specific time or place.

Häfner often begins her works with warm or dark-toned grounds, allowing light to emerge from within the painting itself. These chromatic undertones permeate the composition, creating a temporal ambiguity, suggesting twilight, the blue hour, or an indeterminate moment between day and night. Light here is inseparable from color; it is carried by it, absorbed by it, and transformed through it. These paintings are informed by Häfner’s sustained observation of a recurring landscape, where the same environment reveals itself differently each day through shifts in light, weather, and season.

Color remains the central organising principle of the paintings. Through layered applications of oil, acrylic, and chalk, Häfner constructs zones of color that suggest depth without relying on linear perspective. Horizons remain unstable, contours soften, and transitions blur. Space is not fixed but continuously negotiated, encouraging a slow, attentive mode of looking.

Within these chromatic spaces, elements of landscape gradually come forward. Trees, cloud-like forms, or dense vegetal masses appear closer to the viewer, partially obscuring what lies beyond. These forms remain deliberately ambiguous, hovering between abstraction and recognition. Rather than depicting nature, Häfner evokes the sensation of being momentarily immersed in it, where proximity, atmosphere, and color take precedence over description.

The exhibition unfolds across the gallery as a sequence of panoramic arrangements. Works are installed in horizontal groupings, aligned by height yet varying in length, creating extended visual rhythms that echo the experience of scanning a landscape. This mode of display reinforces the physical and temporal dimension of the paintings, inviting viewers to move along them, pause, and settle into a slower, contemplative engagement. This panoramic logic also echoes the vastness and apparent limitlessness of the landscape that informs Häfner’s practice, where scale and repetition shape perception over time.

Throughout The Nature of Light, Annabell Häfner continues to explore the delicate balance between interior and exterior, construction and dissolution, distance and immediacy. Color remains the constant through which these tensions are articulated, while light acts as a lens, revealing subtle shifts, intensities, and moments of transition. The works do not offer resolution, but rather sustain a state of openness, where perception remains fluid and attentive.