Today is Thursday, 12 March 2026—just two days until an exciting opening on Berlin’s art map. carlier | gebauer is preparing to present “The Weight of Light,” a solo exhibition featuring seven new works by New York-based painter Jessica Rankin. Opening on 14 March, this show centres on Rankin’s signature hybrid world—the dance of thread and paint on canvas.
Rankin’s art is a graceful rebellion against the notion of “mastery.” Rather than fully mastering the rules of a single discipline (painting or embroidery), she favours an intuitive and playful approach. In her hands, paint behaves like thread, while thread takes on the fluidity of paint. As she describes it, “producing in a state of anxiety” lends her works both fragile sincerity and liberated energy.
Poems That Transcend the Canvas
One of the most captivating aspects of the exhibition is the way fragments of poetry from Rankin’s personal library have been stitched directly onto the canvases. These texts are not mere decorative elements; they function as compasses inviting the viewer to circle the work. The poems become networks through Rankin’s hands, questioning art history’s lineage and issues of visibility. She defines herself not as ironic, but as sincere and sceptical—an approach that allows us to feel the emotional depth in every brushstroke and every stitch.
Literary Archipelagos: Limón, Notley, and Milton
Each work in the exhibition resonates with the voice of a poet Rankin admires. Watery Extension of Time and Small Susurrations, inspired by Ada Limón’s poem Fifteen Ball of Feathers, use concentric compositions—like ripples from a stone dropped in water—to express wonder at the human experience. Rankin shares with Limón that “excitement of daily life” and “passion for being human,” which she translates onto canvas.
Mother and Sky: Loop up the Sky Swooping (JR) is a tribute to Rankin’s mother, the renowned poet Jennifer Rankin, and her poem Mainland Eyes. We witness how this particular fascination with sky and birds has evolved from family legacy into the artist’s present work.
Not a Hero, but a Gatherer: Her Gathered Beams, drawn from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, is interwoven with Ursula K. Le Guin’s famous “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.” Here Rankin creates not a spear-wielding masculine hero, but a “radiant hero” who gathers, collects, and protects light.
The Loneliness of Creation: Finally, Whistle Anciently (AN), inspired by Alice Notley, depicts the melancholic and solitary nature of art-making through parallel yet never-intersecting ribbon-like forms.
As spring approaches in Berlin, “The Weight of Light” calls us to feel the heavy yet graceful nature of light—not only as something that illuminates, but as something that carries meaning. Rankin’s canvases will remain poetic sanctuaries on the walls of carlier | gebauer until 18 April.
Exhibition Information:
Artist: Jessica Rankin
Title: The Weight of Light
Venue: carlier | gebauer, Berlin
Dates: 14 March – 18 April 2026
