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Artwork series: Nebulae
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Nebulae are huge birthplaces for stars and consist of interstellar dust, hydrogen, and helium. As enormous cloudscapes, they are a great source of inspiration for Anne Wölk. As symbols of aesthetic contemplation, let us, as human beings, sight the overwhelming beauty of nature on a large scale. Wölk’s starry landscapes represent an artistic investigation and translation that deal with the vastness of cosmic space. At unimaginable distances, measured in light-years, you can see strange suns that appear in Wölk’s pictures as tiny little details. In reality, the light points represent gigantic worlds in distant areas of space. The motifs are inspired by astrophotographs from the Hubble Space Telescope and transfer unreachable places to a painted, humanly experienced picture space. The paintings show bizarre and beautiful structures and challenge the viewer in the best sense to take a closer look.
text in German:
Nebulae sind gewaltige Geburtsorte für Sterne und bestehen aus interstellarem Staub, Wasserstoff und Helium. Die Wolkengebilde sind für Anne Wölk eine großartige Inspirationsquelle. Als Symbole ästhetischer Kontemplation, lässt uns Menschen ihr Anblick, die überwältigende Schönheit der Natur in größten Maßstäben erleben. Wölk´s Sternenlandschaften stellen eine künstlerische Untersuchung und Übersetzung dar, die sich mit der Weite des kosmischen Raums auseinandersetzt. In unvorstellbaren Entfernungen, gemessen in Lichtjahren, sieht man fremde Sonnen, die in Wölk´s Bildern als winzige kleine Details erscheinen. In der Realität repräsentieren die Lichtpunkte gigantische Welten in fernen Bereichen des Weltraums. Die Motive sind von Astrofotografien des Hubble Space Teleskops inspiriert und transferieren unerreichbare Orte in einen gemalten und menschlich empfundenen Erlebnisraum. Die Bilder zeigen bizarre und schöne Gebilde und fordern im besten Sinne heraus, genauer hinzusehen.}

Artwork series: Planet Spheres
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The idea of ​​the painted celestial globes originates from astronomical research on exoplanets, which is driven by the search for extrasolar worlds. As a child, Anne Wölk saw countless simulations of the night skies and detailed presentations of gas planets such as Saturn and Jupiter at the planetarium of her hometown, Jena. Wölk’s sky landscapes are painted on spheres of different sizes and hang freely from the ceiling. The three-dimensional paintings are characterized by the use of a slow, precise working method and are made with acrylic paint on styrofoam. The objects embody a fictional and poetic interpretation of possible extraterrestrial worlds, carrying the ideal of the romanticism of the 19th century. The starting point for the spheres are astrophotographs from space telescopes. Inspired by viable future colonies on rocky planets, the works refer to the question of whether there is ‘life beyond earth’ and ask: ‘What could colonies look like on other worlds?’
text in German:
Die Idee, der bemalten Himmelsgloben, entspringt der astronomischen Forschung zu Exoplaneten, die die Fahndung nach extrasolaren Welten vorantreibt. Als Kind sah Anne Wölk, im Planetarium ihrer Heimatstadt Jena, unzählige Simulationen des nächtlichen Sternenhimmels und Detailaufnahmen von Gasplaneten, wie dem Saturn und Jupiter.
Wölk´s Himmelslandschaften sind auf Kugeln in unterschiedlicher Größe gemalt und hängen frei schwebend von der Decke. Die dreidimensionalen Gemälde entstehen in einer Methodik des langsamen und präzisen Arbeitens in Arylfarbe auf Styropor. Das Ideal der Romantik des 19. Jahrhunderts in sich tragend, verkörpern die Objekte, eine fiktive und poetische Interpretation möglicher Exowelten. Ausgangspunkt für die Sphären sind Astrofotografien von Weltraumteleskopen. Gedanklich inspiriert von möglichen zukünftigen Kolonien auf Gesteinsplaneten, beziehen sich die Arbeiten auf die Frage nach „Leben jenseits der Erde“. Wie könnten Kolonien auf anderen Welten aussehen?}

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Artwork series: Starscapes
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The Starscapes series comprises night landscapes with fascinating and mysterious light atmospheres. The motifs come from the tradition of landscape painting of the 17th century, when Dutch painters, such as Aert van der Neer, examined night light phenomena in many ways. Although Anne Wölk takes on the precision and painterly compactness of the old master van der Neer, she uses Filmstills from popular science fiction movies as a contemporary template. The painter lets mountain landscapes shine brightly against dark, starry skies and magically draws the viewer’s gaze into their depths. A digital glow effect in the horizon line references the excessive screen light of the present day. The classic deep light of traditional oil painting is distorted and expanded by an LED light. The dark shade ‘indanthrene blue’ is omnipresent in the firmament. The deep, wide night blue of the sky envelops and quietly warms the viewer in an artistic embrace.
text in German:
Die Serie “Starscapes” umfasst Nachtlandschaften mit faszinierenden und geheimnisvollen Lichtstimmungen. Die Motive stehen in der Tradition der Landschaftsmalerei des 17.Jahrhunderts, einer Zeit in der niederländische Maler, wie Aert van der Neer, Nachtlichtphänomene vielfältig untersucht haben. Anne Wölk übernimmt die Präzision und malerische Kompaktheit des Altmeisters, nutzt aber im zeitgenössischem Sinne Filmstills aus dem Science-Fiction Genre als Vorlagen. Die Malerin lässt Gebirgslandschaften vor dunklen Sternenhimmeln hell aufleuchten und zieht den Blick des Betrachters magisch in die Tiefe. Ein digitaler Gloweffekt in der Horizontlinie referiert auf übersteigerte Bildschirmfarben der Gegenwart. Das klassische Tiefenlicht der altmeisterlichen Ölmalerei wird durch LED-Licht verzerrt und erweitert. Omnipresent ist der dunkle Blauton “Indanthrene Blue” im Firmament. Das tiefe und weite Nachtblau des Himmelsgewölbe hüllt ein und wärmt leise in einer bildnerischen Umarmung.}

Artwork series: Floating architectures
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Anne Wölk includes architectural elements in her painting compositions when dealing with the futuristic designs of the Bauhaus-related VKhUTEMAS movement. In general, the painter adores the union of the artistic and technical vision of the Russian Avant-Garde. In 2015, a comprehensive and extensive exhibition was held at the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin. Next to the historical background information of Russian Avant-Garde Futurism, Anne Wölk researched in Set Designs of Science Fiction Movies about future city ideas, for e. g. the film Oblivion with its Sky Tower.}

Artwork series: Birch trees and two Moons in the Sky
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Art, in its purest sense, is an attempt to construct a parallel world with different horizons of opportunity. The focus of the artistic research of artwork series, Birch trees and two Moons in the Sky, is the process of recreation of reality. The working method is characterized by the employment of collage techniques and the layering of landscapes with juxtaposed objects and playing with grids, geometric shapes and light. 
Next to historical art influences, many international futuristic and utopian novels have strongly influenced the painting motifs. As a teenager, Anne Wölk read science fiction novels such as Return from the Stars by Stanisław Lem and Roadside Picnic by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Since then, the artist had read tons of science fiction novels with completely different cultural backgrounds. For that reason, Wölk owns a vast collection of books, which she had built upon the two first novels mentioned previously. One of her favorite books is Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson, which addresses the main points of her subject matter. Gibson predicted cyberspace, which is structured similarly to our Internet. But in contrast to today’s flat monitor experience, cyberspace can be accessed as a location. 
Anne Wölks artworks are intended to get stuck in the head. A painting has to be more than “only” technically perfect. It should own something special like an independent sole, that is difficult to put into words, but that only turns art into “art.” Her motives are magical and somehow crazy in their own way, like the landscapes in dreams and associate opposing terms such as bright and quiet, attractive, and a little scary.
Through Wölks cultural roots, the artist experience herself as a part of two different worlds, having both Eastern and Western cultural influences. During her childhood, she often came into contact with paintings by East-European and Russian landscape painters. She always enjoyed drawing birch trees and have loved them for their cool and beautiful elegance. The painters grandfather was the first person to promote her interest in drawing. He taught her basic rules for studying nature and understanding proportions. Wölk senior came from the East-Prussian Königsberg, modern-day Kaliningrad. During Wölks early childhood, he influenced her with his drawings and portraits, which were full of Baltic Romanticism and melancholy. Since then the Baltic melancholy has inscribed itself into her artworks, like a different melody.}