Barbara Probst

Looking into a mirror offers far more than just a laterally reversed view of reality. At least since Alice embarked on her famous journey through the looking-glass, it has been clear: what takes place here is a comprehensive, radically questioning shift in perspective. Barbara Probst’s new works engage in this very journey. Looking into a mirror offers far more than just a laterally reversed view of reality. At least since Alice embarked on her famous journey through the looking-glass, it has been clear: what takes place here is a comprehensive, radically questioning shift in perspective. Barbara Probst’s new works engage in this very journey. Created between 2025 and 2026 in the artist’s studio, they integrate autobiographical references—specifically, sculptural and photographic works from the early 1990s. It was during this period that Barbara Probst, coming from a background in sculpture, first began to engage with photography. Model-like arrangements of colored cubes (recreated in retrospect of that time), early photographic images, and sculptures by her father, who was himself a sculptor, form the stage for these new „Exposures.“ Aesthetically and highly precisely composed, they resemble a scientific experimental setup. They are experiments in seeing. In every image, the artist herself is part of the staging. The twelve pairs of images consist mostly of one color and one black-and-white photograph each. They effortlessly plumb the boundaries of what can be visually decoded and hold a mirror up to us. The works are accompanied by a text by British author and curator David Campany, who explores the world of these pieces against the backdrop of Barbara Probst’s oeuvre to date.