Anne Wölk Blends Astronomy and Memory in Speculative Paintings

Berlin-based artist Anne Wölk, originally from Jena, Germany, creates speculative landscapes that merge scientific observation with personal reverie. Her work draws on astronomy, science fiction, and landscape painting to explore how images of the universe shape human desire and cultural imagination. Growing up in Jena, a city known for optics and astronomy, she was deeply influenced by visits to the Zeiss Planetarium. Her painting "Island of Future Echoes," part of her ongoing series "Future Echoes," marks a turn inward, addressing identity and memory through a retrofuturistic scene set on Gran Canaria, an island with major observatories. Wölk cites influences including Vija Celmins and Russell Crotty, and her practice combines research, intuition, and play to create works that feel both distant and emotionally familiar.