At the very beginning of this exhibition – Ellen Akimoto’s very first at Galerie Judin – visitors walk up to a wall-filling, printed trompe l’oeil. Through a set of translucent curtains, drawn across a wallpapered wall, an open window frames the silhouettes of two figures in motion. One of the figures raises its arms, with the other leaning towards it. Are we witnessing an argument? Or are they playing? Perhaps they are making a move on each other?

The mural is thus an early manifestation of elements characteristic of the work of this artist, who has lived and worked in Leipzig for a decade now. Akimoto’s paintings mostly show interiors and people. Mysterious narratives unfold in them, eluding straightforward readings and always remaining enigmatic. It comes as no surprise that the artist draws on photoshopped collages for the larger compositions. The trompe l’oeil that preludes the exhibition, also digitally generated, thus also reveals the importance of digital technologies for Akimoto’s practice. In addition, the wall work gives ample space to ornamental elements, which also play a special part in the artist’s imagery. The repeat pattern in the wallpaper, for example, is a tachist brushstroke that keeps reappearing in Akimoto’s compositions and which alludes to another playing field in her work. Time and again, Akimoto walks the fine line between figuration and abstraction, further potentiating the mystique that pervades her work. Indeed, it was the exploration of this very potential of figurative, narrative painting and its peripheries that drew her to Leipzig in the first place.