Picture "Electric Narcissus" (2024) (Unique piece)

Mechtild van Ahlers was born in Coesfeld in 1954. She began her studies in painting at the Werk-Kunstschule Münster in 1973. In 1975, she transferred to the renowned Folkwangschule in Essen, where she received her diploma in 1980.

Originally coming from the field of painting, Mechtild van Ahlers soon after graduating from the art academy shifted the focus of her work back to painting. In 1986, she founded the “Steele-Horst” studios in Essen. Two years later, she moved to Berlin, where she has been working as a freelance artist ever since. She spends the spring and summer months working on the Greek Cyclades island of Amorgos. 

Thomas R. Hoffmann, art historian at the Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin writes about van Ahler's works: 

“Mechtild van Ahler's work is characterized by a fine sense for the sound of color. Equipped with this, she carefully allows her pictorial worlds to grow into brilliant color worlds of enormous depth. The artist explores the plastic values of color layer by layer with glazed oil paints.
Her works are roaring symphonies of tonal colors that can range from luminously bright to melancholically dark. In this way, the perfection of the pictorial space develops in all her compositions, which, under constant contemplation - in harmony with the corresponding title - achieves its great emotional expression in the viewer.”

Mechtild van Ahler's works are shown in national and international exhibitions and can be found in private collections and museums.