Esther Schipper Berlin presents 'Hyperarousal', Celeste Rapone's first exhibition with the gallery, featuring three new paintings that explore the intersection of sensuous stimulation and nervous tension. The works depict female protagonists in narratively dense, ambiguous scenes that allegorize millennial angst, using techniques like alla prima painting and color-based formal constraints. Key pieces include 'While Waiting' (2025), showing a figure with pepper spray and a digital camera, and 'Den' (2026), where intertwined figures follow a self-defense tutorial on an iPad.
The exhibition matters because it showcases Rapone's distinctive approach to figurative painting that blends formalist concerns—surface, pattern, color—with autobiographical and art historical references. Her work captures a generational mood of anxious vigilance and ironic vulnerability, contributing to contemporary conversations about femininity, safety, and the aesthetics of millennial experience. The show also marks a significant step for the artist's career, being her first presentation with Esther Schipper, a gallery with over three decades of history in Berlin.