STOP PLAYING SMALL.
A title that challenges me, too.
In the studio, I return to the moment when a painting asks for more than I planned to give: more freedom, a bolder decision, the courage to disrupt what already works.
As a woman artist, I know the quiet voices telling us to be careful, take up less space, and lower our ambitions. But art begins where we stop shrinking.
Painting means staying with uncertainty long enough for something unexpected to emerge. Trusting intuition. Knowing when restraint serves the work—and when it is simply fear in disguise.
“Stop Playing Small” is more than a title. It is a call to think bigger, dream beyond what feels reasonable, and stop holding back the parts of us that demand expression.
A painting becomes compelling when it exceeds my intentions. Perhaps we do, too.
We do not have to become smaller to make others comfortable. We are allowed to grow, be visible, and take up space.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #AbstractPainting #PaintingPractice #StopPlayingSmall
STOP PLAYING SMALL.
A title that challenges me, too.
In the studio, I return to the moment when a painting asks for more than I planned to give: more freedom, a bolder decision, the courage to disrupt what already works.
As a woman artist, I know the quiet voices telling us to be careful, take up less space, and lower our ambitions. But art begins where we stop shrinking.
Painting means staying with uncertainty long enough for something unexpected to emerge. Trusting intuition. Knowing when restraint serves the work—and when it is simply fear in disguise.
“Stop Playing Small” is more than a title. It is a call to think bigger, dream beyond what feels reasonable, and stop holding back the parts of us that demand expression.
A painting becomes compelling when it exceeds my intentions. Perhaps we do, too.
We do not have to become smaller to make others comfortable. We are allowed to grow, be visible, and take up space.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #AbstractPainting #PaintingPractice #StopPlayingSmall
“Where would you go if you could go anywhere?”
Embedded in the painted surface, this question introduces a legible voice into a field of interruptions. Language briefly anchors the eye, while the surrounding marks pull it elsewhere.
Across this 180 × 120 cm work, layered whites partially obscure a loose architecture of black forms. Pink gestures cut through the surface, shifting between drawing and handwriting. Overpainting holds these different registers together without fully reconciling them; earlier marks remain active beneath subsequent layers.
My interest lies in this tension between what can be read and what can only be encountered through looking. The sentence offers an apparently direct point of entry, but its conditional phrasing leaves something unresolved: what does the imagined freedom of “anywhere” depend upon?
The question remains suspended within the material decisions of the painting—between assertion and erasure, movement and constraint.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #TextBasedArt #ExpandedPainting #ContemporaryArt
“Where would you go if you could go anywhere?”
Embedded in the painted surface, this question introduces a legible voice into a field of interruptions. Language briefly anchors the eye, while the surrounding marks pull it elsewhere.
Across this 180 × 120 cm work, layered whites partially obscure a loose architecture of black forms. Pink gestures cut through the surface, shifting between drawing and handwriting. Overpainting holds these different registers together without fully reconciling them; earlier marks remain active beneath subsequent layers.
My interest lies in this tension between what can be read and what can only be encountered through looking. The sentence offers an apparently direct point of entry, but its conditional phrasing leaves something unresolved: what does the imagined freedom of “anywhere” depend upon?
The question remains suspended within the material decisions of the painting—between assertion and erasure, movement and constraint.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #TextBasedArt #ExpandedPainting #ContemporaryArt
SEVEN / EIGHT BEAUFORT
Some paintings remain a point of reference long after they leave the studio wall.
Painted several years ago, this work is still one of my favourites—and an important presence within my practice. Its scale is immense, its weight quite literal. Numerous layers of paint have accumulated across the material, creating a surface that holds the history of its making.
Here, painting approaches the physical presence of an installation. The work occupies space, asks for distance, then draws you close to the density of its surface. Each layer becomes part of a negotiation between movement and resistance, force and stillness.
Its title evokes wind; its material carries weight. That tension continues to hold my attention, years later.
“Seven / Eight Beaufort” remains available. For exhibition enquiries, collection enquiries, or further details, please contact me directly.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #MaterialityInArt #LargeScalePainting #PaintingAndInstallation
SEVEN / EIGHT BEAUFORT
Some paintings remain a point of reference long after they leave the studio wall.
Painted several years ago, this work is still one of my favourites—and an important presence within my practice. Its scale is immense, its weight quite literal. Numerous layers of paint have accumulated across the material, creating a surface that holds the history of its making.
Here, painting approaches the physical presence of an installation. The work occupies space, asks for distance, then draws you close to the density of its surface. Each layer becomes part of a negotiation between movement and resistance, force and stillness.
Its title evokes wind; its material carries weight. That tension continues to hold my attention, years later.
“Seven / Eight Beaufort” remains available. For exhibition enquiries, collection enquiries, or further details, please contact me directly.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #MaterialityInArt #LargeScalePainting #PaintingAndInstallation
ALL THE ROOMS WE LEFT UNFINISHED
Before I made a single mark, something had already happened here.
I found this precious linen at a vintage market in London. Its edges, its yellowed passages, the traces held within its surface—all carried a history I could only partly read.
At 2 metres high and 2.80 metres wide, that history now occupies an entirely different space.
I let the marks of time remain visible. They enter the composition, interrupt the colour, and influence where the painting takes me. My own gestures become another layer in a story already underway.
This is where my painting and installation practice meet: in materials that have lived before they reach my studio. Their histories are an essential part of the work. I preserve what remains and continue its story through my own emotions, questions, and ideas.
There is an intimacy in working with something whose past you will never fully know. You become responsible for its traces, even as you change its future.
Nothing is used up. A remnant becomes a beginning. Something of another life moves forward into this one. And some rooms remain unfinished so that we can keep entering them.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #MaterialMemory #InstallationArt #LargeScalePainting
ALL THE ROOMS WE LEFT UNFINISHED
Before I made a single mark, something had already happened here.
I found this precious linen at a vintage market in London. Its edges, its yellowed passages, the traces held within its surface—all carried a history I could only partly read.
At 2 metres high and 2.80 metres wide, that history now occupies an entirely different space.
I let the marks of time remain visible. They enter the composition, interrupt the colour, and influence where the painting takes me. My own gestures become another layer in a story already underway.
This is where my painting and installation practice meet: in materials that have lived before they reach my studio. Their histories are an essential part of the work. I preserve what remains and continue its story through my own emotions, questions, and ideas.
There is an intimacy in working with something whose past you will never fully know. You become responsible for its traces, even as you change its future.
Nothing is used up. A remnant becomes a beginning. Something of another life moves forward into this one. And some rooms remain unfinished so that we can keep entering them.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #ContemporaryPainting #MaterialMemory #InstallationArt #LargeScalePainting
A work I’m ready to return to. One that has occupied my mind for months.
Each piece stands 2.50 metres tall and 1.60 metres wide—a scale I love. It challenges me, pushes me to my limits, and refuses to be rushed.
And that is exactly why I love bringing these works out again and again, finding my way through them, giving them my energy and time.
I feel I’m getting close now. Close to that moment when everything falls into place.
#LargeScalePainting #AbstractArt #WorkInProgress #StudioPractice #KnautContemporary
A work I’m ready to return to. One that has occupied my mind for months.
Each piece stands 2.50 metres tall and 1.60 metres wide—a scale I love. It challenges me, pushes me to my limits, and refuses to be rushed.
And that is exactly why I love bringing these works out again and again, finding my way through them, giving them my energy and time.
I feel I’m getting close now. Close to that moment when everything falls into place.
#LargeScalePainting #AbstractArt #WorkInProgress #StudioPractice #KnautContemporary
SOLD — At 4.60 metres long, this is one of the largest paintings ever to leave my studio.
Painted on high-quality linen over several months at the beginning of this year, it went through many phases. At first, it was quiet and restrained. This was followed by a phase in which I added green accents using oil paints and spray paint, along with delicate drawn marks. Then came an abundance of colour. Finally, I softened it again through numerous layers of translucent paint.
Yet its entire history remains visible. Earlier marks, colours and decisions still surface through the layers, like a whirlwind that has finally come to rest.
I know that all the energy I pour into my paintings stays within them, even when they are completely painted over and their original character can only be sensed beneath the layers.
It means so much to see this painting find its place in a major collection. A work that occupied such a large part of my studio—and my thoughts—is beginning a new chapter.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #LargeScalePainting #ContemporaryPainting #AbstractArt #ArtCollection
SOLD — At 4.60 metres long, this is one of the largest paintings ever to leave my studio.
Painted on high-quality linen over several months at the beginning of this year, it went through many phases. At first, it was quiet and restrained. This was followed by a phase in which I added green accents using oil paints and spray paint, along with delicate drawn marks. Then came an abundance of colour. Finally, I softened it again through numerous layers of translucent paint.
Yet its entire history remains visible. Earlier marks, colours and decisions still surface through the layers, like a whirlwind that has finally come to rest.
I know that all the energy I pour into my paintings stays within them, even when they are completely painted over and their original character can only be sensed beneath the layers.
It means so much to see this painting find its place in a major collection. A work that occupied such a large part of my studio—and my thoughts—is beginning a new chapter.
#ManuelaKarinKnaut #LargeScalePainting #ContemporaryPainting #AbstractArt #ArtCollection