INSIDE EMPIRE opens portals to other worlds. Mythical figures take on a fluid presence all their own. Vessels, mirrors, beings, and symbols interact with one another, forming a realm where the boundaries between reality and illusion blur. What initially seems familiar shifts: bodies become projections, objects become actors, the space itself becomes an interlocutor, and the mirror a gateway to the inner self.
Marie Aly’s works manifest an in-between space where the familiar and the foreign, the human and the mystical, are in constant motion—as an invitation to experience the boundaries between worlds as permeable. Thus, her figures elude fixed categories and assert a presence that is both self-assured and enigmatic.
In Tine Günther’s works, intuition and experience, art and ritual, the material and the transcendent merge. This holistic approach shapes her entire body of work—from ceramics and sculpture to painting and immersive spatial concepts. In an archaic act of creation, she develops a symbolically charged visual world in which mythology, shamanism, material, and transformation intertwine, opening a gateway to hidden levels of perception.
The encounter between these two positions creates a space of transition: sensual, unsettling, magical, and full of subtle shifts.
INSIDE EMPIRE is an invitation to look more closely—and perhaps to rediscover oneself in the process.
Marie Aly (born 1980 in Berlin; lives and works in Berlin) studied painting at the Dresden University of Fine Arts under Professor Ralf Kerbach from 2002 to 2007. Subsequently, she pursued a(post-graduate) degree at the same institution until 2009. Her numerous awards include the De Ateliers residency fellowship in Amsterdam (2008–2010), the Royal Dutch Painting Prize (2009), as well as grants from the Cultural Foundation of Saxony, the Mondrian Fund (Amsterdam), and VG Bild-Kunst. From 2018 to 2021, she held a teaching position in painting and drawing at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg).
Tine Günther (born 1979 in Berlin; lives and works in Leipzig) studied at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design from 2002 to 2011, including a guest semester at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples in 2006/2007. Since 2012, she has been a member of the artist collective Gallery FIST, participating in exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Since 2018, she has worked independently at the Künstlerhaus Schaddelmühle; since 2021, she has served as an art therapist, naturopath, and lecturer at the HGB Leipzig (post documenta). Since 2024, she has worked as a painter and ceramist, operating her own studio, MYLASHER.earth.