The Weightless State of Light: Sybille Pattscheck and “An Interplay of Colour, Light and Space” in Berlin

Sometimes Berlin’s famously gray sky gives way to such clarity that, when you lift your head, you find yourself in an infinite, light-filled, weightless void. On the Berlin floor of Apartment No:26 this week, we open our windows to Sybille Pattscheck’s exhibition “An Interplay of Colour, Light and Space” at Galerie Albrecht, capturing precisely that momentary awakening on canvas. Running until March 7, 2026, this selection introduces us to the purest, most sensory state of light and color through an ancient painting technique. If you long to pause amid the city’s noise and take refuge in the meditative power of simply seeing, Pattscheck’s light tunnels woven with beeswax offer the peaceful emptiness you seek.

Encaustic: The Modern Glow of an Ancient Alchemy

Sybille Pattscheck works with encaustic (beeswax painting), a technique whose roots reach back to antiquity. By applying semi-transparent beeswax colored with pigments in broad brushstrokes to various surfaces, the artist allows light to refract between the wax layers, making colors appear to float on the surface.

This method keeps pigment particles suspended deep within the wax, creating a constantly shifting brilliance depending on the angle of incoming light. In Pattscheck’s hands, beeswax is no longer just a material; it becomes a living organism that constructs light and depth.

Two Different Worlds: “Metachrome” and “Farblichtungen”

The exhibition reveals the fascinating transition and contrast between the artist’s two core series:

Metachrome Series: Applied to wooden grounds, these works create dense yet permeable color networks through vertical and horizontal layers of paint. Here we can directly follow the painting process, the brushstrokes, and the characteristic texture of the wax. Colors seeping from the depths give the viewer the sensation of an “excavation”—as though we are looking into the past of the color itself.

Farblichtungen Series: Here Pattscheck abandons wood in favor of acrylic glass bodies. This choice radically alters the way light permeates the space. On matte, monochromatic surfaces, brushstrokes become almost invisible, and the work transforms into a volume that traps light within itself.

Apartment No:26 Note: The contrasting color tones at the edges of the Farblichtungen series flow toward the monochromatic center, manipulating our color perception. The result is a diffuse light space that represents nothing yet evokes the sky, the sea, or a memory all at once.

In the Artist’s Footsteps: From Münster to Paris

Born in 1958, Sybille Pattscheck completed her training at Kunstakademie Münster under Ulrich Erben and received her Meisterschüler title in 1986. Throughout her career she has received numerous awards, including the prestigious “Kunstpreis der Künstler” in Düsseldorf. In 2024 she was a resident artist at the renowned Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. With exhibitions spanning India to the United States, Spain to Lithuania, Pattscheck continues to measure the weight of light.

Exhibition Information

Artist: Sybille Pattscheck

Exhibition Title: An Interplay of Colour, Light and Space

Venue: Galerie Albrecht, Berlin

Dates: January 24 – March 7, 2026

Highlights: Encaustic technique, color-light-space interaction.

Before leaving the silent, luminous corridors of Galerie Albrecht, be sure to view the works from different angles—each shift reveals a new layer of color.