Johanna Reich – Linguphoria

KORNFELD Galerie Berlin is pleased to present the exhibition Linguphoria by Johanna Reich. The exhibition offers fascinating insights into the interfaces between humans, machines, and language.

Johanna Reich, who has been working intensively with language models and neural networks since 2018, dedicates this exhibition to the question of how images can be translated into spoken and written language—and conversely, how language can be translated into visual forms. Linguphoria shows how Reich uses the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a new kind of visual language based on her personal synaesthesia.

The exhibition includes a series of hybrid ink paintings on canvas titled Aevorìs / Dancing Islands, in which colour traces analysed by AI are transformed into poems. These poems, written in a language jointly developed by the artist and AI, appear as luminous words behind the abstract colour traces. Reich describes this process as a dialogue between humans and machines that celebrates the individuality of the human brain and the potential of modern neuroscience:

“In this collaboration with AI, a language emerges that seems at once familiar and strange, opening up new ways for us to explore the connection between image and text.”

Another central group of works in the exhibition is the Phantasma und Zeichen series, in which Reich takes the opposite approach: texts are used to generate images. These hybrid paintings consist of a mixture of video, acrylic paint, and ink. Projections meet dark, multi-faceted canvases and merge into a constantly transforming painting. The works address current questions of authorship and aesthetics in AI-generated art, placing them at the center of the artistic inquiry.

Johanna Reich’s works not only address the technological transformation of language and image but also examine the profound effects of this development on our thinking and our understanding of art and the world. With Linguphoria, the artist offers a reflective and visually compelling exploration of the interaction between human creativity and machine intelligence.

Johanna Reich (*1977) lives and works in Cologne. In her practice, she combines contemporary techniques such as video, performance, and holographic projections with traditional media including painting and sculpture. She studied fine art at the Kunstakademie Münster, the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg, and the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, and participated in exchange and artist-in-residence programs in the USA, Israel, Spain, Luxembourg, and Romania. From 2020 to 2022, she held a guest professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts (AdBK) Munich.

Johanna Reich has received numerous awards, including the Japanese Excellence Prize for Media Arts Tokyo, the Luise Straus Prize, the Konrad von Soest Prize, and the Nam June Paik Award Sponsorship Prize. Her works have been shown internationally at institutions such as the Wind H Art Centre Beijing, the Pinakothek der Moderne, the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Spier Art Collection Johannesburg, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Museo Reina Sofía Madrid, the Stella Art Foundation Moscow, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art Toronto, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the Palais de Tokyo Paris. Her works are also held in major collections including the Jerry Speyer Collection (New York), the Sammlung Goetz (Munich), and the collection of the Museum für Konkrete Kunst Ingolstadt.