Björn Drenkwitz
April 17, 2026 – May 23, 2026
Red Rain
Galerie Heike Strelow
Under the title *Red Rain*, we present his latest series of works, which explore how global developments are reflected in images today. Climate change, technological infrastructure, and political conflicts form a common backdrop. Drenkwitz works with photographic material, screenshots, satellite images, and historical printing techniques. Digital tools and generative AI are part of this process. At the same time, the works reflect on the conditions under which images are created and viewed today.
Many of his works take their starting point from images of real-life events. In the series *Red Rain*, Drenkwitz draws on media images of the wildfires of the summer of 2022. Firefighting planes drop red-tinted fire retardant over burning landscapes. Through repeated AI-assisted enlargement of tiny sections of these images, new visual fields emerge. The original scene dissolves. What remains are large-format images that straddle the line between documentary and painterly visual power.
Other works in the exhibition also navigate the space between real-world events, technical representation, and artistic transformation. In *Eye of the Storm*, satellite images of hurricanes are layered in such a way that a calm point forms at the center. In *Raised Fist*, photographs of raised fists from protest movements spanning several decades merge into a unified image of resistance.
At the same time, the focus turns to the technical systems that make this image production possible in the first place. *Artificial Light* explores data centers, whose energy demands are constantly growing due to the use of AI. There, Drenkwitz examines the transitions between natural and artificial light. These light phenomena, in turn, are digitally interpreted and transformed into new images.
Alongside these digital processes are works that engage more directly with physical materials. The cyanotypes in the “Glacier”series are created through a direct physical process. Drenkwitz freezes meltwater from a glacier into a block of ice and places it on light-sensitive cyanotype paper. Sunlight exposes the paper, while the melting ice gradually interrupts the process. In doing so, the structure of the ice leaves visible traces in the image. Thus, the work combines a historical photographic process with a material that is itself part of climate change.
"Past and Future Forest" takes this approach to a larger scale. The large-format cyanotypes depict dead trees. Windthrow, fires, insect infestations, and drought are increasingly taking their toll on European forests. By translating these scenes into cyanotypes, Drenkwitz captures the appearance of these trees. The images are photographic traces of a forest in transition.
The exhibition *Red Rain* brings these different approaches together. Documentary images, digital manipulation, and chemical printing processes intertwine. The works depict natural phenomena, political gestures, and technical infrastructures. At the same time, they raise the question of how such events become visible today and what role images play in this process.
Heike Strelow Gallery
Lange Str. 31
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Opening hours
Wed–Fri 12 noon–6 p.m.
Sat 12 noon–3 p.m.