Silke Otto-Knapp (b. 1970, Osnabrück, Germany) is a painter who works in the medium of watercolor on canvas. Otto-Knapp produces landscape paintings as well as paintings based on historical documentations of stage design and performance. Unlike traditional watercolorists, Otto-Knapp applies layers of watercolor that are washed down and then applied anew. These countless coats produce the coexistence of conflicting concepts of space – surface and depth, contour and corporeality, distance and closeness, reality and figurativeness – which give rise to a tension between the motif and the picture surface. Otto-Knapp’s recent solo museum exhibitions include Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (2020), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2020), Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2019), Taka Ishii, Tokyo (2018), Galleri Ismene, Trodheim (2018), Regen Projects, Los Angeles (with Lari Pittman) (2017), Taylor Macklin, Zurich (2017), Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis (2017), Museo Marino Marini, Florence; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Camden Art Center, London (all 2014); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2013).