As an advocate of figurative painting, Gerhard Richter's former master student began working on a series in the early 2000s in which she made poodles, Great Danes, terriers, labradors and Dalmatians in varying poses on different kinds of floor coverings her main motif. As simple as the content of these pictures may seem: Karin Kneffel's typical, lifelike reproductions of everyday objects in an almost photorealistic manner always conceals a thoughtfully conceived moment of uncertainty and irritation. The four-legged friends usually linger on the very edge of the artist's chosen image detail, so that the floor covering - whether ornamentally-ornate carpets or geometrical striking tiled floors – occupies most of the composition. The observer looks at this motif from a strange perspective - in half topview and at the same time with a clear image depth, the actual obeserver‘s point of view cannot be clearly defined. The visual content is an alienation of seemingly familiar motifs, an effect the artist realized through the moments of irritation which she creates with stylistic means of distortion, blurring and wiping. Through a strong focus on shapes, patterns and colors, the cute puppy looses its sappy connotation and is liberated from other associated emotions in order to function as a part of the ornamentation. In the work offered here, Karin Kneffel combines the randomly set dark points of the running Dalmatian with the strictly symmetrical lozenges of the white-brown tiles. The artist demonstrates her ability to create a highly aesthetic and at the same time irritating, exciting picture with the help of a painting manner based on an unexcited realism and skilfully employed visual gimmicks. [CH]