Eleni Koroneou Gallery is pleased to present Nocturama, an exhibition by Helmut Middendorf featuring paintings and works on paper from the 1980s and the 1990s.

The paintings from the 1990s, exhibited here for the first time, form a series of self-portraits imbued with Middendorf’s characteristically raw and immediate energy. They create a vivid, psychologically charged constellation of faces, each pushing the expressive limits of color and gesture. Some appear as double portraits, where two heads share the same frame, their features overlapping or echoing one another. This doubling heightens a sense of movement, introspection, and internal dialogue.

Across many works, bold, mask-like features dominate—wide eyes, sharply modeled noses, and mouths that hover between stillness and expression. The frequent use of red on the nose or face introduces a visceral accent, suggesting heat, intensity, or a theatrical trace reminiscent of nightlife, disguise, or performance. High-contrast palettes, from deep blues to searing reds and yellows, give the faces an electric, almost feverish presence. Several portraits include words and fragments of text that function not as messages but as visual rhythm, charging the image with an urban, nocturnal edge. Together, these portraits operate as emotional states made visible, conveying the immediacy of experience and the multiplicity of the self.

The works on paper from the same era, capture the charged atmosphere of the night as it unfolded in the artist’s immediate surroundings—Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, where Middendorf lived and worked. They revolve around the human figure and its immersion in music, nightlife, and the raw energy of the streets. Created with spontaneity and urgency, these compositions pulse with luminous, high-contrast color and sweeping gestural brushstrokes. Their aim was intensity: to translate the force of lived experience into an equally forceful visual language.