lea carla diestelhorst

About

Lea Carla Diestelhorst is a visual artist based in Essen, Germany. Her practice moves between painting, drawing and sculpture, exploring the line as both a visual gesture and a physical form.

Working primarily with acrylic paint and spray paint, she creates abstract landscapes in which lines, colour and layers of mist interact. The spray paint settles between the lines, forming translucent veils that suggest depth, distance and hidden spaces. Her paintings evoke a sense of an imagined natural world: mysterious and shifting, yet open to personal interpretation.

Her inspiration often comes from observing the world around her: organic growth, intricate structures, fleeting phenomena and particular qualities of light. Through an experimental process, she explores the tension between structure and spontaneity, control and chance, allowing forms to emerge, transform and find their own direction.

The line extends beyond the picture plane into three-dimensional works and mobiles, as well as large-scale facade paintings. Across these different contexts, she explores how lines change in relation to space, architecture and their surroundings.

Alongside her individual practice, Diestelhorst collaborates with artist Ida Andrae as the duo Andrae & Diestelhorst. She also curates RAUM55, an independent exhibition and project space for contemporary art in Essen and teaches painting and drawing.

Photography and moving images are another important part of her creative life. Working under the name Nektar Carla, she follows this interest freely and intuitively, guided by curiosity, observation and the simple pleasure of looking.

She studied painting and graphic arts in Essen, Hamburg and Paris. Since 2014, she has worked as an independent artist, exhibiting and participating in projects in Germany and abroad.