exhibitions & projects: 2014-2018
MIDNIGHT SUN: "Il giardino segreto" (detail), 90 x 120 cm, acrylic on canvas
exhibition: sapori d'oro
INFO
exhibition:
SAPORI D'ORO
in occassion of the 11th edition of the annual local fair
"PANE, OLIO E ..."
21. & 22th November 2015
Pza. della Republica,
00010 Montelibretti.
MONTELIBRETTI
THE TASTING
95 x 40 cm, acrilic/canvas
Get to the table! The dinner is served!
The oil fluids brightly out of the bottle into the throat, smooths the gorge and polishes the soul. The eye also wants to participate and enjoy, gloats over the bread and oil’s color and form, who duel cheekily on the tongue.
Within this little spectacle there’s not a dry eye: breadcrumbs pile up to mountains on smeary golden plates, beard and napkin share the menu, which the gourmant is watering with a closing nap of wine, and the empty bottles intone with hoarse voices a farewell-song.
This retrospective of small paintings will introduce the viewer into the flavors of the Sabinan Hilllands. The artist is dishing up on his canvas and wishes
„Buon appetito!“
exhibition: midnight sun
The exhibition MIDNIGHT SUN shows a selection of works from the previous two years within the ambience of the Vienna International Center in Vienna: next to paintings of the exhibitions GRATWANDERUNG and IL GIARDINO SEGRETO the viewer will also find artworks, which have been created during a brief stay in Wroclaw (Poland) in 2013.
Within these groupe of paintings the artist concentrated particularly on the handling of light and shadow as well as on the creation of figures, objects and space through the interaction of color
and illumination. Furthermore these works have in common with each other the scenarizing of a human being striving for self-awareness within a mysterious and shady world.
Therein prevails a state of twilight - neither day nor night - a midnight sun, which is deliberately obscuring the enigma of the human protanist struggling with his desire for perception.
INFO
exhibition:
MIDNIGHT SUN
15th - 25th June 2015
Vienna International Center, Wagramer Straße 5, A-1230
VIENNA
CRYSTAL BALL
80 x 60 cm, acrylics/canvas
catalogue: NEW WAYS
The cataolgue about the previous year's project NEWS WAY, in which the artist was walking about 1.250 km by foot from Innsbruck to Rome, has officially been released in May 2015. The publication
not only brings into focus the concluding painting cylce GRATWANDERUNG but also presents the variety and diversity of smaller works, created on the way itself, information about idea and
conception as well as an insight into the artist's creative process.
On 88 pages the reader will furthermore find a concomitant text, introducing the project itself and offering a survey of the picture cycle, followed by an interesting insight into the immense material of sketches and notes, which had originated along the walk, and finally accompanied by anecotes and fotos as well as background information about the two final exhibitions in the Vatican and in Innsbruck. Since the project could be understood since its beginning as a kind of interdisciplinary and cross-border untertaking, which aimed at the artistic experience and bringing together of different european regions, in Austrian and in Italy alike, the text has been written deliberately in two languages - GERMAN and ITALIAN.
The catalogue has been printed in high quality in cooperation with the grafic designer Katja Hasenöhrl (hasenoehrl.design) and the printing house GRASL FAIR PRINT as a limited special edition (400 pieces). For further information about the catalogue please use the contact formula of the website.
exhibition: il giardino segreto
The new painting cycle IL GIARDINO SEGRETO is visualizing and questioning the utopian idea of an idyllic existence by presenting dreamlike sceneries in a little pastoral house embedded in a bucolic garden.
Within this “hortus conclusus” the human protagonist desires nothing more intensely then a carefree life in harmony with nature. Lemons and orange brighten the night sky, while the sun rises at midnight behind the olive tree and the steam of the pastor’s pipe forms visions of vanity and decay.
In these interiors and exteriors the viewer is confronted with moments of joy and self-awareness, but simultaneously with the inevitable ambivalence of life and death and the awareness that the sensation of idyll will just remain momentary.
INFO
exhibiton:
IL GIARDINO SEGRETO
14th - 21th March 2015
Colibrì Art Shop and Gallery
Via die Latini, 1400 Roma.
22th - 29th March 2015
Istituto Comprensivo Statale, Piazza della Republica,
00010 Montelibretti.
ROMA / MONTELIBRETTI
FIRE GUARD
80 x 60 cm, acrylic/canvas.
2014: NEW WAYS
With the project “New Ways” the artist FLORIAN KÖHLER was working out a visual documentation of several weeks of pilgrimage by foot through Austria and Italy. The starting point for the 1.200 km long walk was Innsbruck (Tirol, Austria), wherefrom the route led via Bozen, Trient, Padua, Bologna, Dovadola and in the end via Assisi and Rieti to Rome.
Along the way Florian Köhler was taking notes in the form of sketches, watercolors and a diary to journalize the experiences, the difficulties and the daily routine of the journey. After his arrival in Rome these notes have been used as primary material to work out a cycle of paintings of variable size, which has subsequently presented the results of the project together with the sketches in two final exhibitions in Innsbruck and the Vatican (Rome).
“New Ways” particularly focused on the demonstration of an alternate and innovative approach within the artistic medium of painting: Köhler deliberately confronted himself with the physical and mental strains of a pilgrimage by foot. By using graphic utensils and watercolors the impressions and ideas have been recorded en route while diary entries have documented the progress of the walk. The way itself set the pace of the artistic realization and determined the execution and themes of the paintings by weather as well as its course. Likewise the artist and pilgrim can be understood as an image carrier, his path as canvas primed with the sweat and the endeavors along the way, his memory and experiences as colors and forms.
The walk consciously took place against the background of an ancient routing system, which originates in the pilgrim's routes of the 13th century and since then functions as a cultural network
and connector system between the different cities and countries within Europe. The confrontation with these ancient travel routes further shall broaden the project’s horizon by not only
reflecting the phenomenon of pilgrimage itself but also by analyzing the motivation for such a walk in past and contemporary times.
In this respect the artist declares that
"the subject matter of pilgrimage and walking shows manifold aspects, whereby especially the contrast between the monotony of everyday life and the lighthearted exploration of the world by
foot remains one of the most fascinating. The experience of walking changes our percipience of the passing nature and cities as the hectic pace of our modern world gives way to a leisurely
calmness, which lets us see foreign countries, conventions and landscapes from a different point of view. It is a concern of mine to convey these values through my art and to broaden the minds of
people who nowadays often feel trapped within human society."
[Florian Köhler, 2015]