Miriam Cahn’s solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum features paintings, drawings and films that engage with the complex realities of our rapidly changing world.

New works created over the past year are presented alongside older pieces, offering thematic context and a compelling interpretation of the human condition shaped by war, violence and gender inequality.

In Reading Dust and the accompanying publication, Cahn delves into various forms of oppression faced by individuals and their methods of resistance. The small accompanying publication, produced in conjunction with her exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon, includes facsimiles of her drawings as well as her text MEIN RHYTHMISCHES SCHREIBEN.

Her visceral imagery evokes powerful emotions through simple brushstrokes and a vigorous drawing style. Using different formats, bursts of color and enigmatic human forms she portrays universal emotions such as anger, fear, loss, vulnerability and power. Cahn paints indistinct, semi-abstract figures – often fragmented and ghostly – in otherworldly landscapes, where she confronts the complexities of human existence.

Exploring themes from vulnerability to power, from perpetrators to victims. Her skill in creating maximum impact with minimum means underscores her unique place in the art world. Cahn’s work shatters taboos and, in a world in turmoil and violence, serves as a stark warning. She depicts human atrocities with brutal reality. War, sexual violence and racism. Her in-your-face paintings and drawings don’t sugarcoat the truth, but they deliberately provoke and unflinchingly seek out confrontation. Shaped by feminist theory, the artist unapologetically depicts all the facets of womanhood. She depicts the female body nude and with a raw intimacy, rejecting unrealistic ideals of female beauty. With this she reclaims the female body from the male-dominated system that consistently objectifies, criticizes and seeks to control women’s bodies.