FRAGILE BEAUTY - Marita Czepa

The exhibition explores both the beauty and the vulnerability of our natural world in an era of profound ecological change.

Marita Czepa depicts landscapes of the Anthropocene—the geological epoch in which humans have become a defining influence on climate, environment, and landscape.

Her works are primarily created in watercolor and ink and oscillate between observation, memory, and artistic reflection. They depict landscapes shaped by human intervention, climate change, and resource use—or already bearing their marks.

For the artist, the focus is not on a documentary representation, but on the question of how our view of landscape changes when we consider its vulnerability.

For many years, Marita Czepa has consciously avoided using newly purchased painting paper. Instead, she works on pre-used materials: magazine pages, packing paper, discarded hanging files, advertising posters, or used paper bags.

These used papers already carry their own history and become part of the artistic expression. The aged surfaces, signs of wear, and faded prints lend the works an additional layer of meaning.

They speak of transience, reuse, and the appreciation of resources. The artist sees this approach as a deliberate counterpoint to a consumer-oriented throwaway society.

Nature has been Marita Czepa’s primary source of inspiration for decades. Numerous trips to Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Latvia, France, Italy, and throughout Germany have shaped her view of the landscape.

In particular, her encounters with the vast, often still untouched landscapes of Iceland led to an intense examination of the consequences of human activity on the environment. Beauty therefore never appears in her paintings as a mere idyll. It is always linked to questions of responsibility, loss, and the future.

The exhibition is titled “Fragile Beauty” because it brings this very tension into view: the fascination with nature and, at the same time, the awareness of its vulnerability.

The luminous, often transparent watercolors meet aged papers, fragile surfaces, and traces of past use. This creates pictorial spaces in which beauty and transience are inextricably linked.

The exhibition encourages visitors to take a fresh look at the landscapes of our present—as precious but vulnerable habitats whose future also lies in our hands.

Marita Czepa, born in 1956 in Demmin, has lived in Berlin since 1983.

After studying at the Academy of Painting in Berlin, she developed a distinctive artistic perspective that combines landscape, environmental issues, and sustainability. Her works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad.

The opening will be accompanied by a special jazz concert by the Kaupp Trio. The young singer Franziska Kaupp, the Berlin jazz pianist Leander Neidig, and the double bassist Per Moritz “Pelle” Buschmann have put together a program specifically for this evening that takes up the theme of the exhibition.

Songs such as “What a Wonderful World,” “Nature Boy,” “La Mer,” “Stormy Weather,” and “Fragile” reflect both the beauty of nature and its vulnerability, entering into a musical dialogue with the landscapes on display.

Opening: Saturday, July 4, 2026, 5:00 p.m.

Laudatory speech: Joachim Czepa

Concert: Kaupp Trio | Jazz

Per Moritz “Pelle” Buschmann (bass), Leander Neidig (piano), Franziska Kaupp (vocals)

Additional events in conjunction with the exhibition:

Artist Talk: Thursday, July 30, 2026, 3 p.m.

Artist talk and guided tour with Marita Czepa

Closing Reception: Saturday, September 12, 2026, 5 p.m.

Concert: MALTE VIEF (various guitar instruments),

Musical Images – Cross-genre and Emotional