Urban Voids and Shadows of the Canvas: Lili Theilen and Stef Heidhues at Galerie EIGEN + ART
Construction voids glanced past as we walk the city streets, shopfront windows sealed with packing tape, or empty frames with their signage removed… These spaces in urban life that seem “paused” at first glance are, in fact, the most vivid witnesses of temporary functions and the relationship we establish with the city. In her solo exhibition titled “hook, line and sinker” at Galerie EIGEN + ART Berlin, Stef Heidhues confronts the viewer with the potential of these undefined voids in public space. On view between September 11 and October 31, 2026, Heidhues constructs dimensional spaces into which visitors can personally step through her free-standing sculptures and wall installations. While examining these “blank pages” forgotten by the city, the artist also reopens concepts of visibility, access, and representation within the urban context for debate.
Moving over to EIGEN + ART Lab—which could be considered the gallery’s experimental extension—the focus shifts from the city streets to the surface of the canvas and the language of shadows. Lili Theilen’s exhibition “Cycling Loading”, on view through October 17, hosts monumental figures shaped by diluted layers of paint that nonetheless alter the gallery’s entire atmosphere with their presence. Emerging as if scraped out from amidst still, monochromatic backgrounds, these shadow-like bodies stand on the canvas in a silence nearly exempt from life. In her delicate brushstrokes reduced to a two-dimensional surface, Theilen establishes a ghostly and powerful visual dominance that leaves the viewer in the middle of a taciturn narrative.
Opening their doors with a simultaneous inauguration on the evening of Thursday, September 10, as part of Berlin Art Week, these two exhibitions offer one of September’s freshest and most multi-layered routes for those wishing to explore the city’s overlooked architectural ruptures on one hand, and shadowy existences on canvas on the other.
