Susanne Herbold works in large formats and abstraction – her painting evolves through an open, dynamic process.
Her paintings arise from the tension between intuitive gesture and deliberate reduction. Over multiple layered phases, passages are built up, pared back and rebalanced. Transparent layers, densifications and open fields coexist, creating a tension between decision and possibility.
Herbold works on the wall or on the floor. Alongside acrylics in varying consistencies, she primarily uses spray paint and oil pastel. Her painting process is physical and immediate; depending on the work, it is accompanied by music or unfolds in deliberate silence. A painting leaves the studio only once it is complete in itself. What remains open is the resonance alone – created anew with every encounter with the viewer.
She has been painting continuously since the late 1990s; over some 25 years, her visual language has evolved from early figurative works to her present abstraction. She understands beauty not as decoration but as a stance – a conscious turn towards what is alive, in a time marked by unrest.
Herbold’s works have been shown in international exhibitions in cities including New York, Miami, Barcelona, Berlin and Florence, and are held in private collections worldwide. A pivotal step in her development is the work The Seed of Love (2025), created for the XV Florence Biennale. Taking the theme “Light and Darkness” as its point of departure, the work focuses on the moment of transition – the emergence of form before it settles into definition. In 2026, Gallery Richter in Santanyí, which represents Herbold, presented her solo exhibition “Somewhere Between Knowing and Letting Go”. Her work is featured in the art book Great Artists of Mallorca (2025). She is also a co-author of Frauen schaffen Zukunft – Werte (FAZ Buchverlag, 2024).
In Cologne, Herbold is a member of the artists’ collective cARTelle, with whom she regularly exhibits. She lives and works in Cologne and Mallorca.
Photo: Wolfgang Hüffer
