Celeste Rapone | Hyperarousal | Esther Schipper | 01.05.–20.06.2026

until 20.06. | #5027ARTatBerlin | Gallery Esther Schipper shows from Friday, 1. May 2026 the exhibition Hyperarousal by the artist Celeste Rapone.

Esther Schipper Berlin is delighted to announce “Hyperarousal”, Celeste Rapone’s first exhibition at the gallery. Rapone presents three paintings which, through narratively dense compositions, explore the tense intersection between sensual stimulation and nervous irritation.

With their flat and compact forms, the female protagonists in the exhibited paintings symbolise the tense glamour of millennial anxiety and the libidinal energies that drive them. An intuitive eye for detail and a witty sense of irony enable Rapone to depict the anxious mood characteristic of her generation in ambiguous, twisted and almost embarrassing scenes. Caught between restlessness and paralysis, the anxious millennials we encounter in her work inhabit a kind of delicate vulnerability. Here, the theatrical foreboding of doom meets the pleasurable suspension of its arrival. Female vigilance seems caught between the fear and the pleasure of potential danger.

Rapone paints alla prima, without preliminary sketches. She establishes formal parameters by choosing a colour; the figurative elements of each composition are thereby dictated by the hue. Whilst ‘Waiting’ (2025) is permeated by an ice-blue colour palette, ‘Loner’ (2025) draws on shades of moss, olive and forest green, which contrast with the scarlet hair of the figure depicted. Beneath her equally red nose, the lonely Whole Foods customer bites her fingernails so fiercely that it seems as though she might soon swallow her whole hand.

Whilst her left arm presses against the lower edge of the canvas, the figure in “Waiting” tucks her left breast into the crook of her arm. A displaced, flower-adorned nipple cover, which appears both coquettish and awkward, positions the exposed upper body between self-assurance and vulnerability. Rapone has embedded the portrait in an idyllic, almost pastoral setting. A slender twig elegantly frames the figure’s head; a nightingale rests beside a handful of crimson berries. Yet the naked figure signals a premonition of impending danger with a bright green accessory: she is carrying pepper spray. Once again, a digital camera hovering directly beside this common means of self-defence provides a counterpoint: it testifies to curiosity and the ability to return the gaze with a full flash.

Celeste Rapone, Loner, 2025, oil on linen, 71 x 61 cm (28 x 24 in) (unframed), 73,6 x 63,5 x 5,1 cm (29 x 25 x 2 in) (framed) (CRA 010), Image © Nathan Keay

The work “Den” (2026), created on a large-format canvas, also explores the depiction of vigilant femininity. The surreal and angular perspective causes the composition to dissolve into a fictional space characterised by narrative ambiguity. Beneath an industrial ventilation duct, we catch a glimpse of four intertwined figures in sexy nightgowns. One’s manicured hand reaches for another’s throat; two others hold hands, their fingers interlaced. It is impossible to distinguish these bodies from one another. The scene’s sex appeal, however, is undermined by the figures’ bored expressions. Whatever remains of the erotic dynamic clashes with a plot twist situated directly beneath the top edge of the screen. A closer look at the display of an open iPad reveals a paused self-defence video tutorial. As the wrestling women follow the tutorial, they transform the looming shadow of doom into entertainment. By peppering the composition with golf tees and a number 8 ball, Rapone turns it into a narrative feast serving up playful games, twisted limbs, taut flesh and clenched toes.

Exhibition Celeste Rapone – Esther Schipper | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin