The American painter Daniel Bodner, whose work we have been following since 2013 and are now presenting in a fifth solo exhibition, is breaking completely new ground in formal terms with his new group of works. However, if you take a closer look, it becomes clear that even in his representational paintings, which were based on cityscapes or the human figure, his main interest lay in exploring the relationship between painting and photography and their respective means of depicting light.

The abstract paintings in this new exhibition intensify this interest. By moving to images that he generates unconsciously, Bodner explores the simultaneous creation and destruction of images that can occur in the analog photographic process with its pitfalls of overexposure and underexposure, unintended chemical reactions and the physicality of technology.

Now, when looking at “photographs”, the shift from analog to digital image-making can seem inconsequential. Yet as digital image-making replaces the analog photographic process, its invisible, instantaneous mechanism erases the drama of an image taking shape.

By moving from scenes drawn from the world around us to an unconscious approach to creating images, Bodner depicts that drama, as if the paintings are literally developing as we look at them, with both creation and destruction happening at once.

 

opening: 18.01.2025, 6 – 9 pm

exhibition: 18. January- 01.March 2025

opening hours: Wen. – Sat., 1 – 6 pm and by appointment