Christoph M. Gais. Un sorriso

18 January to 1 March 2025 ⟶ Galerie

Installation view. Photo: Katrin Rother

Untitled, 2024, Oil on canvas (2 parts), each 120 x 140 cm

untitled, 2014, Natural materials/ plaster/ wooden wire frame/ mixed media, 36 x 80 x 40 cm

untitled, 2008, oil on canvas, 180 x 200 cm

Untitled, 2024, oil on wood, 60 x 50 cm

untitled, 2024, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

Installation view. Photo: Katrin Rother

untitled, 2024, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

Installation view. Photo: Katrin Rother

untitled, 2022/2023, Oil on canvas and glass, 120 x 100 cm

untitled, 2022, oil on canvas and glass, 120 x 100 cm

Installation view. Photo: Katrin Rother

Sophia, 2015, oil on canvas, 200 x 260 cm

untitled, 2022, oil on canvas and glass, 50 x 60 cm

untitled, 2021, oil on canvas, 80 x 200 cm

untitled, 2022, oil on canvas, 150,5 x 127 cm

untitled, 2013, oil on canvas, 180 x 200 cm

untitled, 2014, natural materials/ wooden wire frame/ mixed media, 60 x 82 x 38 cm

Opening: Friday, January 17, 6 - 9 pm
Artist talk: Saturday, January 18, 2 pm

In his solo exhibition “Un sorriso”, Christoph M. Gais (*1951) is showing paintings, drawings and sculptures from the last 20 years of his creative career.

A special feature of Christoph M. Gais' painting is the superimposition of layers of paint. Like strata of successive geological eras, one layer of paint is applied on top of the next. A bright color flashes through random gaps in the shades. An earlier coating, rich in material, emerges as a relief beneath the subsequent overpainting. A grid-like seriality of patterns and ornaments emerges, resulting in a flickering picture surface.

The impasto results resemble curtains, tapestries that reveal Gais' interest in the spatial. The materiality of the painting unfolds a real pictorial space in front of the canvas, not behind it, like the virtual space in classical painting. To reinforce the plasticity, Gais also works with optical illusion: he places clear, sharply delineated elements on the flickering painting structures. With this technique,

he introduces the imaginary level of spatiality into his painting. The organic forms seem to fly towards the audience in full plasticity.

Initially vessels, cubes, cones and spheres, Gais continuously develops the forms into bulging rings and finally heads with faces. In his most recent cycle of works, he plays with head shapes, as he did previously with his organic forms. There are character heads, cross heads, egg heads, silly heads, googly heads and square heads among the portraits, which bring a smile to visitors' faces. With just a few strokes, the artist gives each face individual features, although the eyes, nose and mouth are reduced to the utmost. Despite all the minimalism, it is the expressive gazes from the paintings that challenge the viewer: eccentric, piercing, staring, astonished, stern and penetrating, the eyes pursue us and turn the viewer into the observed without being able to escape the pull.

In his latest works painted behind and on glass, Gais not only seeks to experiment with combining different image carriers on top of each other, but also incorporates the outside space and the viewer as a pictorial element through reflection.

In the exhibition, Gais succeeds in leading visitors into silent, inescapable conversations with his works. Those who get involved will not be able to hide their grin.

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Christoph M. Gais