Another show at Brooklyn Artists Gym by Cordula Volkening, the artist who was diagnosed wth advanced brain cancer last year. The BAG gallery is located at 168 7th Street between 3rd and 2nd Avenue in the Park Slope/Gowanus area.

Volkening was on the Park Slope 100 in 2007 and is a real hero in my book, a wild, brave heart, for not letting her disease get in the way of her desire to make paintings. Sadly, the tumor make it impossible for her to speak.

And her paintings are really striking. Here’s the blurb from BAG:

Cordula Volkening has been working as an artist and designer for 35 years. “Mit Meinem Wilden Herzen” is her second show at BAG. It is named for a Rilke poem and roughly translates from German as “in my wildest/bravest heart.”

Cordula was diagnosed with advanced brain cancer last September. She has undergone two rounds of brain surgery and is currently in an experimental clinical trial. The tumor has impaired her ability to speak, but as her friend photographer Stefan Falke says, the effects of the cancer and the treatments have “not kept her from continuously creating great art.”

Cordula was born and raised in Germany and has lived in Brooklyn since 1985. She holds a degree in fine art from the School of Art and Design in Kiel, Germany. She has had solo and group shows and has won fellowships and various awards for her work. Her first show at Brooklyn Artists Gym took place last December and was called “YOU: Would you like an invitation to my destination?” She is the owner of Living Art Space, a design and construction management firm.

Cordula considers her style to be “a unique kind of visual storytelling … My work as an artist is to supply language that is unpretentious and allow stories to be told without using tried-out recipes. Once the visuals are created, I become a viewer just like anybody else and surrender to the unique response that each visual solicits.”

My work as an artist is to supply language that is unpretentious and allow stories to be told without using tried-out recipes. Once the visuals are created, I become a viewer just like anybody else and surrender to the unique response that each visual solicits. more..

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