Eckhart von Glan: Play pretend

We are pleased to announce our first exhibition at the Scheytt Gallery. Under the motto "Play pretend" we would like to present oil paintings and drawings by Eckhart von Glan to you at the start of 2026.

Eckhart von Glan, born in Eutin in 1964, lives and works in Hamburg. He studied painting at the Braunschweig University of Art under Lienhard von Monkiewitsch and Alfred Winter Rust, and at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts under KP Brehmer, specializing in painting and printmaking. Since graduating in 1989, he has worked as an art and English teacher and dedicates his summer months to artistic practice in his garden studio.

In Eckhart von Glan's paintings, form and color become vehicles for his emotions and experiences. His paintings and drawings point to an engagement with European Expressionism and Art Informel. In the background, signs and symbols stir, along with their meanings: the dumbbell, the crown within a circle, the wing, the ladder, the bridge. These have washed ashore and been collected over time. It is important that they are there, but they play no role.

The predominantly large-format canvases are created in his summer studio, outdoors. In winter, the sometimes unfinished works rest in the studio's basement while the artist turns to other media. When they are brought back into the light after months or sometimes even years, a new dialogue begins. Eckhart von Glan's approach to the canvas is experimental. Often the works are rotated, painted over, and recomposed. Earlier forms disappear, others emerge, making time visible as a design principle – layers and pauses are legible in the image structure. Although the paintings are created outdoors, they are not depictions of the external world, but rather inner landscapes – reflections of his thoughts and feelings.

The exhibition was curated in collaboration with Emely Grüter, architect and student of art and visual history at Humboldt University in Berlin.