PRESS RELEASE
Exhibition:
Thilo Westermann “Vanitas”
Opening: Saturday, July 7th 2012
Closing: Saturday, Aug. 11th 2012
Opening times:
Wednesday – Friday 2 – 8 p.m.
Saturday 2 – 6 p.m. and by appointment
Oechsner Gallery is proud to present Thilo Westermann’s second solo exhibition. The artist was born in 1980 and held his first solo show “Joie de vivre” in autumn 2010 at the gallery. The current exhibition “Vanitas” (July 7th through August 8th 2012) presents new drawings and reverse plexi paintings. For the first time the gallery also showcases fine art prints, which elaborate Thilo’s critical reflection on the phenomenological state of pictures and on their artistic genesis.
Thilo deliberately transforms the traditional technique of reverse glass painting in a new, conceptual way: The flawless, perfect glossy surface of the pane locates the motif in untouchable distance; the depicted object as well as the picture itself are ennobled as precious pieces. Like exhibits in a vitrine, the motifs of Thilo’s reverse plexi paintings are showcased, whilst simultaneously being out of reach.
Comparable to the halftoning of pictures in magazines or the pixels in digital pictures, Thilo’s subjects are composed of a great number of dots. The effect of a fully realistic image emerges out of the agglomeration of dots, which optically present as shades and which constitutes the three dimensionality of the depicted objects. In contrast to using printer technology, Thilo places his dots manually on the back of plexi panes in a detailed and ruminant process. It is not the highly efficient production of an edition on a large scale that is the purpose of his work, but rather a meditative effort culminating in one single original possessing unique characteristics and a strong attempt to perfection.
This perfect original constitutes the basis for a new series of fine art prints: Thilo has his reverse plexi paintings photographed and printed on a larger scale. By enlarging the original reverse plexi painting on the larger print scale Thilo contrasts the perfection of the original by hinting at its handicraft workmanship. The motif of the print decomposes into single dots and therefore broaches the main issue of the struggle for a perfectly realistic depiction. The subjectivity of the dots takes the place of photography’s objectivity: In contrast to the monotonous, technical halftoning of newspaper pictures and the pixels of digital images, the manually composed dots appear as individual, personal sets. They identify the picture as “the result of an artistic process“ (Petra Weigle).
Thilo entitles his monochrome drawings using the labelling of the colour of the crayon he used to fill his primed image area line by line by setting dots. The application of colour and the diameter of the dots not only depend on the required sharpening of the crayon but as well on the physical and mental settings of the artist during the drawing process. The results are brighter/darker passages which make the colour fields appear cloudy but never monotonous. Therefore also Thilo’s drawings showcase their manufacturing process: They are “logbooks of the time spent by the artist with and on his work” (Martin Thierer).
For further information please visit www.thilowestermann.com