With Angle of Incidence, Galerie Leu presents the second solo exhibition by Swedish artist Ylva Carlgren in Munich. Following Light Implies Shadows in 2023, the exhibition continues Carlgren’s sustained exploration of light, perception, and the material possibilities of watercolor painting, while at the same time marking a further development of her distinctive visual language.

Those new to the work of Ylva Carlgren may be tempted to latch on to any hint of an object they believe themselves to recognise in the paintings constituting Angle of Incidence. (Is that the faint outline of a window? Are those fluorescent lamps I see?) Rather than subtle intimations intentionally left by the artist, however, these whispers of familiarity are better understood as figments of the viewer’s own imagination – a buoyancy vest fashioned by the mind to steady them as they venture into the depths within the frame. While the prisms of light confronting us undeniably give form to a space to be explored,…