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until 06.09. | #4735ARTatBerlin | Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery Berlin shows from Thursday, 24 July 2025 the solo exhibition “The Need for Speed” by the artist Joachim Lambrechts.
Flames erupt from the heels of pink roller skates, the wings of jets, the sails of windsurfers, the roof of a speeding BMW. Black smoke drifts across vibrant fields of colour. In his latest series, The Need for Speed, Lambrechts uses fire not only as a symbol of danger or destruction but also as a metaphor for movement, urgency, passion and the drive to transcend limits.
While known for humorous portraits of superheroes, jazz legends and animals rendered in bold colours and a distinctive graphic style, this new body of work marks a shift — away from figuration and towards a more symbolic visual language. Vehicles and sporting equipment become metaphors for ambition and risk. One skier soars through the air with flaming feet and back, a direct nod to the myth of Icarus. Every painting balances between propulsion and collapse, success and burnout.
Importantly, these are not utilitarian machines but exaggerated designs driven by the desire to go faster, further, higher — sometimes at the cost of safety. A subtle critique of consumer culture runs through Lambrechts’ work, but at its core, this exhibition celebrates forward motion: not only physical, but emotional, intellectual, and professional. As the artist explains: “I feel this inner urge to move forward, to grow, and I believe others feel it too.”
The fire in these paintings becomes a metaphor for friction and effort — the unavoidable cost of acceleration — but also for the intensity needed to overcome it. Lambrechts captures not crisis, but ignition: a moment of momentum where there is no turning back.
Opening: Wednesday, 23 July 2025, 6:00–8:00 PM
Exhibition dates: Thursday, 24 July – Saturday, 6 September 2025
Image caption tilte: Joachim Lambrechts, White BMW, 2025, Emaillefarbe und Ölkreiden, 140 x 160 cm © der Künstler / Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery Berlin
Exhibition Joachim Lambrechts – Kristin Hjellegjerde Berlin | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
