The Dance of Time and Light: Katharina Grosse’s “Point Rock” Exhibition in London

Galerie Max Hetzler is hosting one of the most revolutionary masters of color in contemporary art. “Point Rock,” German artist Katharina Grosse’s first solo presentation in London, translates the explosive energy we are accustomed to from her monumental installations onto paper for the first time.

Opened on 15 January, the exhibition introduces audiences to a new series of watercolors and acrylics that began to take shape during Grosse’s time in the iconic Texas art town of Marfa in late 2024.

Colors Filtered Through Marfa Skies

For Katharina Grosse, painting is not merely a surface; it is a threshold between imagination and the physical world. The artist focuses on the miraculous moment when the sun’s rising and setting over Marfa’s boundless desert horizon briefly makes every color of the Newton spectrum—from green to pink—visible at once. Grosse captures and seals this ephemeral instant onto paper.

The works in the exhibition consist of intertwined clusters of color on brilliant white grounds. In contrast to the monumental scale of pieces such as her 2025 Art Basel installation “CHOIR,” these paper works feel far more spontaneous, fluid, and instantaneous. Brushstrokes ranging from yellow to orange, pink to blue, and deep greens seem to visualize the very passage of time.

Painting as the Kneading of Time

Grosse has spoken of being enchanted by the way desert light dematerializes everything. According to the artist, these paintings convey both the speed of a single moment and the layering of numerous overlapping moments within one image. The loops, knots, and flows of paint on paper blur the distinction between beginning and end, drawing the viewer into a temporal labyrinth.

The shadowy tones of purple and brown that emerge in these watercolors arise from the interaction of superimposed layers. This process simultaneously reveals the sequence of marks and, much like the ever-changing desert sky, conceals them by blending them together.

From World Museums to London

Katharina Grosse (b. 1961), who divides her life between Berlin and New Zealand, has left her mark on some of the world’s most important art institutions, from Centre Pompidou to MoMA PS1. With works held in numerous prestigious collections—including Istanbul Modern—this exhibition once again demonstrates the extraordinary breadth of her conceptual and visual world.

If, amid London’s grey winter days, you wish to witness the ever-shifting light of the Texas desert and see how time itself can “become color,” be sure to visit this exhibition on Dover Street before it closes on 28 February 2026.