Galerie Kashya Hildebrand is pleased to present new works from Austrian artist Robert Schaberl in his fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Schaberl’s ongoing exploration of colour has led him into a deeper investigation of the monochrome. His newest creations, which he calls “light paintings,” combine regular (absorbing) pigments with interference pigments in such a way that instead of being able to define the colour in his works, the viewer perceives a “dance” of refracted colours that shift with the observer’s point of view.
This energetic interplay of colour results in a myriad of effects. For example, the coloured surface of the painting can seem to be matt and dark or glittering and light. The colours produced by interference pigments change the absorption of most wavelengths of light and the reflection of the one that we see; instead, the colour is created entirely by constructive and destructive interference of reflected and refracted light. In that way, the work doesn't really "have" a colour -- it is not a presence or property of the paint; rather, the colour depends entirely on conditions, including the angle of incidence of the light and the eye's angle relative to the surface. The object may seem to “have” a colour, but that colour exists somewhere in the middle between object and subject.
What is so intriguing about these new works is how the painted space comes to life through the viewer and his or her unknowing collaborative partners – daylight, gallery lighting –which destabilize any fixed colour effects. Together, viewer, light source, and work perform a conflict of light, made possible by the works’ inability to hold a fixed hue. These constant perceptual transformations are spellbinding, making the textured surface of Schaberl’s newest and boldest works seem to hover somewhere between the material and the ethereal.
Robert Schaberl was born in 1961 in Feldbach, Austria. He studied from 1979-85 at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, lived in the United States from 1985-86 and lived in Berlin from 1997-2000. Since then he has lived and worked in Vienna. His paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, most notably in Austria, Germany, France, the USA and Costa Rica. His work is also represented in several major collections: the Museum Neue Galerie, Graz; the collection of the City of Vienna; the Museum Liaunig Kärnten, the collection of the State of Austria; the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts; and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles.
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Opening reception in the presence of the artist:
Thursday, June 6, 2013 from 6-8 pm
Press release and images may be downloaded here:
DOWNLOAD
For further information please contact:
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand,
Talstrasse 58, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Tel +41 44 210 02 02
Fax +41 44 210 02 15
jolaine@kashyahildebrand.org
ARTIST INFORMATION
PRESS RELEASE: ENGLISH
PRESS RELEASE: DEUTSCH
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