Dominik Louda. Scaffolding

27.06.2014 - 02.08.2014

Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Wien / Österreich

In Dominik Louda ´s new solo exhibition a wooden construction is reminding of a scaffold, respectively those wooden planks which get installed temporarily on construction zones to make it possible to transport the different building materials in wheelbarrows on them.
The artist invites the visitors to step on it and to cross the gallery space on those grey painted wooden planks and the raw batons. This construction is offering a subtle, minimal shift in the spatial perception, which is made solely through a small elevation of the body of about 10 cm.... Such little changes in the perspective are also responsible for the nearly uncodable arrangements of spaces in Dominik Louda ´s very detailed paintings. Apart of clichés of illusionist painting, construction and crossings between singular architectural elements - like facades, floors, interior spaces, ceilings, pillars, window rows and handrails - get exhibited. Transition zones can be found here not only in the works, but also between the canvas and the gallery space, as Louda is connecting and interweaving the plane and depth spaces with each other. On a first glance his chart of colour seems to be reduced, but its variety can be found in the many shades of blue and grey which dominate
the paintings. Partly Louda is using them to depict the materiality of the different building elements in a realistic way, partly to add some depth to the more abstract areas of his works. The traces of the visitors will change slowly the colour of the grey painted planks of the construction till they get similar gradients. Signs of use and decay can be found in Dominik Louda ´s paintings as well - as part of the motives, but also on carefully selected positions, where the alleged perfect painted lines dissolve in each other. Here one can see that Louda ´s paintings, which look partly highly constructed, still change during the process of painting a lot. At those “fault locations” it gets visible that the architectural conglomerates grow constantly during Louda ´s work on the canvas. The single coats of paint get overpainted and in this further rooms and subtle, detailed surfaces arise.

[Quelle: www.www.kerstinengholm.com]