There exist two primordial sanctuaries where one can shed urban exhaustion, turn inward, and find a sense of renewal: the sea and the forest. Having probed the tidal psyche of water in its 2022 exhibition Übers Meer (Over the Sea), Galerie Susanne Albrecht now shifts its focus to the deep greens and quiet depths of the woods. Übern Wald (Over the Forest) brings together photographer Peter Bialobrzeski and painter Miwa Ogasawara—two Hamburg-based artists engaged in a continuous, collaborative dialogue.
The exhibition vividly demonstrates how approaching the same subject from vastly different vantage points can seamlessly stitch two distinct disciplines together. Through his lens, Peter Bialobrzeski strips away the flawless, fairytale illusion of the forest. Midst landscapes that at first glance appear pristine and romantic, graying trunks on the brink of decay and deadwood suddenly emerge. Bialobrzeski’s framing reminds us that the umbrella of “romanticism” we cast over nature is largely a historical construct. Yet this reality never exhausts the viewer; on the contrary, the camera’s raw, unfiltered gaze into the forest’s texture exposes an honesty in the coexistence of growth and decay, offering a strangely liberating sense of relief.
Across the gallery space, Miwa Ogasawara’s brushwork introduces an entirely different frequency. Ogasawara fundamentally rejects viewing the forest as a mere physical site or a reality to be documented. On her canvases, the woods shed their material constraints to become a pure concept—a symbol of silent renewal within the cycle of growth and decay. While towering tree silhouettes whisper of nature’s unyielding resilience, the artist’s intentionally muted, delicate palette transports the forest’s eerie yet peaceful stillness directly into the gallery.
The interplay of light in her smaller works—executed on zinc-leaf metal—is particularly cinematic. As light refracts across these ultra-thin metallic surfaces, it evokes the fleeting, ephemeral sunbeams that filter through dense canopy to hit the mossy ground. Ogasawara’s paintings offer far more than a visual reading; they imprint the sensory atmosphere of the space directly onto the viewer’s skin and soul.
While one looks through the viewfinder at the stark yet tender face of reality, the other constructs its misty, abstract reflection in paint. At the gallery on Bleibtreustraße in Berlin, witnessing photography and painting complement one another in such an organic, non-hierarchical manner is captivating. Striking an exceptional balance between growth and decay, light and shadow, Übern Wald runs from 5 September to 23 October 2026. It offers a narrative well worth contemplating as we rethink our complex and fragile relationship with the natural world.
