BARBARA KREFT was awarded her M.F.A. by the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste in Berlin, Germany. The recipient of McKnight Fellowships and Minnesota State Arts Board Grants on numerous occasions, she continues to exhibit nationally and internationally in her native Germany.

KREFT'S oil paintings are created through the most labor-intensive of means — the grids are hand-generated rather than ruled out. This repetition of form becomes a meditative, poetic refrain, and the visual results are jewel-like, mosaic-like atmospheres, at once spatial and rooted in nature.

KREFT'S process and labor are very evident in the finished product, though without a self-aggrandizing emphasis on the artist's gestures or genius. Her work seems to slowly accrue and grow, rather than to appear designed and executed; the paintings mirror the slow processes of nature instead of mimetically depicting it.

Her paintings transcend the sensory chaos of contemporary culture and becken the viewer to slow down and reconsider life in a tranquil space.