Melrose II

When a point becomes a line and lines turn into surfaces, under the hands of the artist Anke Ryba, two-dimensional and spatial emphases emerge in an abstract, inimitable warmth that captivates all viewers. Then there are colorful, expressive canvases again, some of them partly realistic in an unspeakable variety that you need some time to grasp everything that can be seen in front of you. Her playful handling of sophisticated technology and the obvious ease in dealing with her picture ideas give her works an individual signature.


Nevertheless, continuity determines her work.


Anke Ryba’s strengths are reflected in the multi-faceted implementations of images and courageous exposures of the chosen subject on her image carrier. On her mainly large-format canvases we find acrylic, oil paints, stain, bitumen, filler and ink, often everything next to each other or interwoven, in a great style and then again with open, abstract gestures. Anke Ryba makes her dreams come true in her unique atelier “The Art Workshop” in Sulz-Mühlheim in the beautiful Neckar Valley, a successful mixture of studio and gallery, of handicraft and affair of the heart. There she deals with commissioned work, with many experimental studies or creates extremely expressive color dynamics under the eyes of her mentor Dietmar Wölfl.


Anke Ryba’s oeuvre impresses with its solid composition and skillful mastery of technology. With her color and imagery, she succeeds in creating images with incredible depth. But we also find floating subjects in front of a diffuse, monochrome background. It is precisely on these canvases that their balanced visual language and their range of artistic possibilities come into their own – as I said, it will take a long time to find such an abundance of artistic expressions. Her works take every viewer to wherever the artist’s imagination should take them. Your pictures are painted passions. You master the extremes between reality and dream, between the tangible and the metaphysical.


Anke Ryba also underlines its regional importance with a lively exhibition. The public and the press, despite all modesty, attest to the skilful orchestration of her art, which contains everything that defines her own life. Her works therefore allow a contrasting picture and figure space, convince with absolute abstraction and then again with imaginative figuration. We experience an extraordinary breadth of artistic possibilities of expression in painting and an apparently dreamlike security, which creates works of fascinating coherence and devotion.


Anke Ryba best describes her own intention about her art, about her abilities and attitude towards what she does. She says: “I paint from my heart’s content, joy in doing! Dreams are given space without fading out reality. For me, that means relaxation and letting go of emotions. I would also like to get to know the effect of colors and the influence of chance. Seeing and feeling colors is life – a key to the soul! ”It is difficult to add anything to that!