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Merit Zika
*1988 born in Cologne, Germany. Lives and works in Cologne
Merit Zikas work revolves around the tension between painted surfaces and their absences. Her interest lies in monochrome fields that oscillate between visible brushwork — suggesting transparency, movement, and gesture — and areas that appear smooth, even, and opaque. These qualities meet directly, creating moments of contrast as well as subtle interplay.The spaces that emerge as omissions are not empty; they often carry as much weight as the painted areas themselves, sometimes even more. They can evoke interior spaces or establish new foregrounds, shifting the spatial reading of the image. The artist is interested in how a surface that extends beyond the edge of the canvas continues in the viewer’s imagination, prompting mental completion and expansion of the pictorial space. At the same time, she explores moments of concentration within the composition — for example through more fragmented, smaller areas — that draw and hold attention inside the picture. Color operates on a different level of decision-making in her work. It allows her to recalibrate the balance and presence of each area within the whole. She questions how a color might dominate a composition even with a smaller physical presence, and under what conditions competing colors can achieve equilibrium rather than conflict.
-education-
2010-2017 Art Academy Düsseldorf
2017 Master student of Prof. Siegfried Anzinger
2016 Artist in residence, London
2015 Royal College of Art, London
-selected exhibitions-
2025 EDITIOON #4, groupshow, Galerie R8m, Cologne; Counting the waves at low tide, groupshow, Kunsthafen Rhenania, Cologne
2024 Counting the waves on foggy days, groupshow, Kunsthafen Rhenania, Cologne; Neue Abstrakte, soloshow, Showroom21, Cologne; Eine kleine Liaison. Malerei im Orangerie-Theater von Merit Zika und Sira Zika, duoshow, Orangerie-Theater, Cologne
2023 work in progress, groupshow, Kunsthafen Rhenania, Cologne; Art in Residence. Merit Zika & Sira Zika, duoshow, Aachener EinsEins4, Cologne
2022 Malerei verwandt. Merit Zika & Sira Zika, duoshow, Museum Zündorfer Wehrturm, Cologne-Porz Zündorf; work in progress, groupshow, Kunsthafen Rhenania, Cologne; November ending, soloshow, Showroom21, Cologne
2021 Im Wandel, groupshow, Kunsthafen Rhenania, Cologne; Begegnung im Quartier. Sira Zika, Tina Löhr, Merit Zika, Peter Uka , groupshow, Quartier am Hafen, Cologne Poll; Oktober Arabeske. Malerei von Merit Zika, soloshow, Showroom21, Cologne
2019 Raumwechsel, groupshow, Atelierhaus #1 Lindgen´s Kantine, Cologne-Mülheim; Einblicke, groupshow, Ateliergemeinschaft Balthasarstraße, Cologne; Zwei Positionen Malerei – gegenüberhängend. Merit Zika und Sira Zika, groupshow, Projektraum 21, Cologne; Running Exhibition, Painting performance in public space, group performance with Sira Zika, Amern
2017 Abschlussausstellung Merit Zika, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf; Fachwerk im Fachwerk. Arbeiten aus der Anzinger Klasse, groupshow, Kunsthaus Mettmann
2016 Satie im Bild, groupshow, Frechen-Königsdorf; Erik Satie Festival Cologne and changing venues
2014 Merit Zika. Ein Moment – Malerei, soloshow, Etc. Gallerie, Cologne; Junge Kunst in Düsseldorf, groupshow and auction by Ernst&Young and Christies, Museum K20, Düsseldorf
2013 Gruppenausstellung Bilderflohmarkt, groupshow, Etc. Gallerie, Cologne
2012 Studio Bildende Kunst. Dies Academicus, groupshow, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn
2010 Forum Kultureller Zusammenarbeit, groupshow, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn
-publications-
2016 Simon Wilkens, Gleiches. Dichtungen. Mit Grafiken von Merit Zika, poetry collection, published in NordPark Verlag, Wuppertal