Individualism and self-realization are motivators that drive us to achieve our dreams and desires. Who doesn’t wish for personal freedom and happiness? This freedom also requires us to make the best of our own circumstances, to choose from the multitude of possibilities in order to follow our own path in life, with perseverance and always asking “why.”

My paintings and installations are often about nothing but pure color, about the picture as an independent platform, as an illusionary space that enables viewers to see themselves as they really are and to recognize what makes them feel free and happy. Each work is a color space, an energy-charged setting that viewers can immerse themselves in mentally in order to feel and experience the power and vitality of color. Through reduction and consolidation, I create fascinating moments of clarity and insight, of intensity.

For me, art is a medium for engaging with my own self, a way of pursuing the question of “why.” I intend for my art to create spaces that inspire viewers to pursue that same question.

Those who allow themselves a moment to pause so that the interaction of color across the picture surface can exercise its effect on them will encounter their own selves looking back. Self-realization is a process that anyone can change, stop, or restart at any time.

Colors as destiny: Jana Dettmer’s path to new color painting.

Born in 1965, the visual artist has always faced up to the challenges in her life, daring to make changes and try something new. She has resolutely taken advantage of her own possibilities to develop her potential and to live her life according to her own wishes and ideas.

A serious accident in 2012 forced Dettmer to take a step back and reflect on her life and where she was going. It was at that time that she recognized the potential that lies in art, for herself and for others. She therefore enrolled in a course of classical training at a recognized art school in order to further develop her painting techniques, and proceeded to draw on her contacts with renowned artists to delve deeper into her artistic work. Her art thereafter developed in autodidactic fashion as Dettmer explored in depth the aesthetic, psychological, and philosophical significance of colors.

Dettmer paints predominantly with rich colors on canvas. The traces of her preferred tool, the palette knife, remain visible in the finished picture and bring out the tactile quality of her non-representational paintings. Her vividly colored, often large-format paintings materialize emotions and allow viewers to sense the impulsive moment of creation. The artist experiments with techniques, breaks her own rules, and yet never sheds her dynamic, intuitive style.

In 2016, Dettmer established an art platform to support art and cultural projects, as well as other artists both younger and more established, promoting a dialogue on art and bringing art lovers together.

The artist has been exhibiting regularly at home and abroad for years. Her works can be found in numerous private collections and are represented in national and international institutions, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Mamac, Nice; and the Frauenmuseum in Bonn. A monograph on Jana Dettmer’s work titled “Neue Farbmalerei | New Colour Painting, Werke 2016–2022” was published by ArtForum Editions in 2022.

The artist lives and works in Cologne and in the south of France.