The work of the German visual artist Evi Keller questions the cosmic principle of the transformation of matter by light. The imprints of the moment [sculptures, paintings, photographs, videos, sounds and performances] reveal a process of substantialisation, which is gradually embodied and transfigured in installations that the artist designates as transitional spaces.

This journey through these spaces has guided the artist towards Matière-Lumière creations, a unique title that the artist gives to all of her creations of the last 20 years, testifying to the anthropocene. Consisting of carbon born in the stars, the essential nucleus of all living matter and recycled by man, these works are animated and transmuted by absorption, transmission and reflection into changing materials in the interaction with the spectator. Through an alchemical process Evi Keller thus transforms the memory of hundreds of millions of years into pieces of art.

The artist unveils, for the first time, Matière-Lumière during the Paris Nuit Blanche 2014. From the beginning of 2015, the Gallery has offered a collaboration to the artist, with a first large-scale solo exhibition from May to September 2015, a presentation of her works in exhibitions in France and abroad, and at fairs such as the FIAC, Art Dubai, Art Brussels. The same year, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie presented the photographs and the audiovisual work Matière-Lumière [Towards the light-silent transformations], which then became part of the institution’s video art collection. A conference was devoted to the intersecting views on the works of Joseph Mallord, William Turner and Evi Keller on the occasion of the Les Lumières de la Vie series organized by the University of Paris Diderot. On the occasion of the closing ceremony of the Year of Light at the Hôtel de Ville de Paris in February 2015, the artist was invited to project an audiovisual work at the end of Hubert Reeves’ conference Giving People Back the Sky.

The following year, an installation Matière-Lumière is presented at the Centrale for contemporary art in Brussels (exhibition Connected, March-August 2016). As part of the exhibition of his works at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (exhibition Le Contemporain Dessiné from March to June 2016), the conference La matière au delà du visible is given around Jean Dubuffet and Evi Keller. In 2017, philosopher and curator Joke Hermsen chose key works by Evi Keller for the exhibition Kairos Castle at Gaasbeek Castle in Belgium (April-June 2017), alongside Nicolas de Staël, Georgia Russell, Anri Sala, Hans Op de Beeck, Pipilotti Rist, Chiharu Shiota, Otobong Nkanga, Antony Gormley and Susumu Shingu. The artist also participates in the exhibition Passion de l’Art – Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, depuis 1925 at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence (June-September 2017), alongside Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Max Ernst, Nicolas de Staël, Mark Tobey and Jean Dubuffet.

Over the past few years, the artist has also regularly collaborated with contemporary dancers and musicians.

In 2018, Evi Keller chose to devote herself entirely to the creation of a monumental installation, the Performance/Matière/Lumière (presented for Nuit Blanche at Église Saint-Eustache). In an initiation ritual in the tribal sense, the artist welcomes the spectator at the heart of the intimate and personal experience of the multiple visions of transmutation of matter through light. Performers [light, spectator, artist] interact in a transitional space to live in an instant through a few billion years

From March to July 2021, the Jeanne Bucher Jaeger gallery devoted a new solo exhibition to her, Stèles.

From 21 May 2022 to February 28, 2023, Evi Keller is part of the exhibition L’arbre dans l’art contemporain, curated by Paul Ardenne in Pont-en-Royans.
From April 2022 to February 2023, Saison d’Art 2022, the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Centre d’Arts et de Nature (Artistic Director: Chantal Colleu-Dumond) exhibited one of her major video works as well as a new monumental creation Matière-Lumière.
From March 24 to April 17, 2022, the artist is invited to the Teatros del Canal, Madrid, as part of the Festival Canal Connect, (Artistic direction Blanca Li and Charles Carcopino) where she will present a performance and installation Matière-Lumière.

From January 2023, Evi Keller has been invited to create the scenography for the Opera Dido and Enée, by Purcell, in collaboration with the choreographer Blanca Li and Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie. Performances from January 17 to 22, 2023 at the Teatros del Canal, Madrid, February 9, 2023 at the Théâtre Impérial – Opéra de Compiègne, March 17 to 19, 2023 at the Opéra Royal de Versailles and June 17 to 22, 2023 at the Liceu Barcelona.

Evi Keller, Matière-Lumière, [Stèle] ML-VB-19-0522, 2019
Evi Keller, Matière-Lumière, [Stèle] ML-V-20-0904, 2020
Evi Keller, Matière-Lumière, Untitled (ML-V-20-0621), 2020
Evi Keller-Matière-Lumière-Untitled (ML-VP-20-0220)-2020
Matière-Lumière, untitled, ML-V-0502, 169,2 x 165,3 in, 2015
Sèvres Outdoors 2016
Evi Keller, Towards the light – silent transformations n° 4654, 2010
Edition of 7

Silver print on Ilford Crystal Archive Paper
35 × 35 in
Evi Keller, Towards the light – silent transformations, n° 4831, 2010
Edition of 7

Silver print on Ilford Crystal Archive Paper
Each print : 15 × 23,6 in
Evi Keller, Matière-Lumière, ML-V-20-0210, Installation 2021
Evi Keller, Matière-Lumière, ML-V-18-1227, Installation 2021