Photography by Conor O´Leary.
Kira Streletzki is a gallerist and curator based between London and Berlin who champions emerging female artists. She regularly organises pop up exhibitions, spotlighting new voices in contemporary art, fostering visibility and dialogue across international audiences.
The first piece I ever acquired was a work on paper by Rashid Johnson from his Anxious Men series, which I purchased in 2018 from Hauser & Wirth in St. Moritz. At the time, I had just completed a six-month internship at the gallery’s New York space, where I developed a deep appreciation for Johnson’s practice. His ability to fuse diverse materials and media — often with raw immediacy — while exploring complex narratives around identity, personal history, and collective emotion left a lasting impression on me.
Since then, I’ve relocated internationally and moved through various living spaces, yet the piece has remained a constant. Johnson’s Black Anxious Drawing (2018) now hangs in the entryway of my London flat, where it’s joined by a work by British artist Ella Walker. In fact, The Romance of the Rose (2024) is the first piece you encounter upon entering. I discovered it at Art Basel last year and was immediately drawn in not only by the visual richness of the work, but also by the way Walker reimagines historical and cultural iconography. Her paintings challenge conventional representations of women, constructing layered, emotionally charged scenes that are as thought-provoking as they are beautiful.
One of the few larger wall spaces in my flat is dedicated to Whispers in Soot (2023), a work by young Chinese artist Kaifan Wang. I first encountered his work at the 2022 Universität der Künste graduate show in Berlin. His practice offers a deeply nuanced exploration of migration and cultural identity, blending the personal and global through expressive brushwork, rich materiality, and a distinctive dialogue between Eastern and Western abstraction. The piece I acquired is rich in colour — deep, layered tones that draw the eye and ground the room — making it a natural centrepiece within my home. I was so drawn to the palette that it gradually began to shape the room’s atmosphere. Over time, the work’s colours and energy have subtly guided the interior design, creating a warm, contemplative, and visually cohesive environment.
In recent years, I’ve been fortunate to curate exhibitions spotlighting emerging female artists, always keeping a work from each show. The next piece joining my collection will be by Chilean-British artist Isabel Muñoz-Newsome. Her paintings shift between figuration and abstraction, with bodies dissolving into waves of colour. Through flowing, often finger-applied brushwork, she evokes the tactile sensation of flesh. These luminous portals of emotion and imagination reveal both the rawness and the euphoria of embodiment, making her work a striking addition to my home.
Author: Kira Streletzki