In my paintings, sculptural installations, performances, and texts, I combine elements from everyday life, pop culture, and (art) historical references. Central to my work is the concept of the terrestrial and the ongoing human attempt to escape groundedness, or “down-to-earthness.” Over the years, the idea of in-between worlds has crystallized for me—a concept that is significant both for my socio-political thinking and my personal biography: the world between the local and the global, the world of the not-yet-digested, the world of tunnels in the mountains, and the ambiguous.
I often work essayistically with a theoretical foundation. Recurring figures (e.g., the knight) and forms (e.g., the circle) play a central role, functioning as leitmotifs in my narratives and addressing the need to explore personal observations, fears, and hopes, which in turn are embedded in a broader political and cultural context. In this framework, I understand “figuring” also as “figuring out”: that is, the process of discovering, comprehending, and striving to understand.

Education

02.2023 // Curating and Money, Post graduation course, Martin Fritz, Zhdk Zürich

08.2019 - 10.2022 // Masterof Arts/ Prof. Jutta Koether, HFBK Hamburg

10.2021 - 03.2022 // ERASMUS Akbild, Vienna

10.2015 - 07.2019 // Bachelor of Arts/ Prof. Andreas Slominski, HFBK Hamburg

Selected Exhibitions

09.2026 // Auf der Wacht, Millerntorwache, Hamburg

08.2026 // Nuvole sciolte, Sinnhof Chur (solo)

04.2026 // don‘t give up you‘ve got the music in you, Mariahilferstr. 115, Wien

10.2025 // Ex Libris Bookfestival, HFBK, Hamburg, reading (with YVS)

10.2025 // Mares and Night Hags, FRISE e.V., Hamburg (with YVS)

08.2025 // In Uscita, Spazio L‘ove, Lugano, CH (duo with Sophia Leitenmayer)

07.2025 // That I care for Daisies. Stadtgalerie Chur, CH (solo)

03.2025 // Big White Playground, Secession, Wien

11.2024 // Lines Fiction, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin

10.2024 // Notes of Absence, Studio Peragine, Hamburg

09.2024 // Parallel Vienna, Vienna

07.2024 // Kleingarten I, Stuwerstr. 33, Vienna

04.2024 // Hard to Swallow, Arthur Boskamp-Foundation, Hohenlockstedt

12.2023 // Jahresgaben, Kunstverein Gastgarten, Hamburg

11.2023 // Water Works, City Surfer Office Gallery, Prague

10.2023 // Ein Sturm verschwindener Wörter, NYT, Berlin

09.2023 // O, Gastgarten, Hamburg (duo with Noemi Barbaglia)

09.2023 // Parallel Vienna, Vienna

02.2023 // Time Based Art is Magic, Studio Peragine, Hamburg

01.2023 // Whisper Whisper, Orbit, Hamburg (duo)

11.2022 // Reconstructions, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin

05.2022 // Schrankstaubschatten, Galerie Schrank, Hamburg (solo)

03.2022 // and bark beetles mapped hidden worlds, Frappant Gallery, Hamburg

08.2021 // Void Recognition, Spoiler, Berlin

Publications

2025 // Stapel Stapel Stapeln Stapeln, Young Valley Soil, self-published

2024 // On Envy, fffllleeessshhhh

2022 // Coming of Age, catalog Graduate Show, HfBK, funded by Rudolf und Erika Koch Foundation

2022 // Fired!, catalog of ceramics workshop of HFBK, Ingrid Jäger (Hg.), Material Verlag

2021 // KANON - die Experimentelle Klasse, Joke Janssen und ANna Tautfest (Hg.), Argument Verlag

Scolarships/ Residencies

2026 // ZEIT STIFTUNG-Bucerius (scolarship)

2026 // Casa D'Angel, Lumnezia (residency)

2025 // Friese Künstler:innenhaus, Hamburg (residency)

2025 // Lilly Keller Stiftung, Thusis (residency)

2024 // Salzburg Summer Academy (scolarship)

2024 // Arthur Boskamp-Foundation (residency)

2023 // Von Kunst Leben Summer Accademy, Töpfer Foundation

2023 // Fundaziun Nairs, Scuol, CH (residency)

2022 // Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg (projectfunding)

2022 // Liebelt Foundation (projectfunding)

2020 // Freundeskreis (projectfunding)

Cristina Rüesch Projects Portfolio Email Instagram

Cristina Rüesch

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