Cornelius Völker: Guter Stoff.
In the organizer's words:
Bodies in fine ribs, people struggling out of sweaters, clothes strewn carelessly on the floor: Textiles play an important role in the work of painter Cornelius Völker. He paints tea towels hanging from kitchen hooks like abstract color field paintings in space. His still lifes of bottles and pictures of cocktails show high-proof "good stuff". There is also a series with drugs such as cannabis, angel dust or blue, which are often also referred to as "dope". There is also "reading material", the culturally more positively connoted addictive substance, which Völker represents in his images of stacks of books.
However, "material" is not only a direct or metaphorical main motif in his works; rather, materiality fundamentally determines Völker's painting process. Pastose layers of paint and transparent-looking parts of the picture alternate on the canvas as the fabric ground of his painting. What from a distance appears clearly fixable as a tweed skirt becomes an informal, gestural painting when viewed close up.
Everyday objects that at first seem less "picture-worthy", such as seemingly carelessly discarded items of clothing, pickled cucumbers, empty candy wrappers and parcels of dubious content, become a painterly challenge. They appear both realistic and abstract, sometimes repulsive and seductive at the same time.
Cornelius Völker (*1965), professor at the Kunstakademie Münster since 2005, was honored in 2023/24 with a comprehensive exhibition at the Museum Kunstpalast in his hometown of Düsseldorf. His works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions.
The themed exhibition "Good Fabric" with 150 works, including many new paintings that have never been shown before, focuses on fabric as a motif and material in his painting. The "linen city of Bielefeld" with its great textile tradition seems predestined for such a selection of works.
This content has been machine translated.Location
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