Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg opens two new exhibitions in its German spaces: Florian Thomas takes over the first-floor gallery with time after time, an exhibition including a series of paintings, while the gallery showcases new works by Etel Adnan in the ground floor space, on the occasion of the Lichtwark Award.
FLORIAN THOMAS (*1966, lives and works in Munich): A woman, blinded by the sun, poses next to an African head statue; a girl rides a hippo; an oversized cat majestically sits against a pink background; street scenes, cars, animals, people... the subjects in Thomas’ paintings reveal their origins: postcards, personal pictures, analog photos, or digital ones found on the internet.
They become templates for the artist’s paintings, and not only do they supply him with subjects and themes, but he also details the artificiality of the image, consequently revisiting the old debate on the respective attributes of paintings and photography.
Executed with great precision, the paintings oscillate between representationalism and abstraction. While most of the exhibited works are committed to figuration, the artist's most recent formal expression focuses on the use of opposing movements in a single work, merrily mixing abstraction, and figuration.
The paintings reflect the spirit of times, the behavior of people, their relationship to objects and nature: the monumental painting Lu-Fu from 2021 celebrates its subject-cat’s natural beauty. But at the same time, it hints at people's treatment of animals, and the entertainment aspect of the presentation of possessions.
Thomas also touches on the theme of restitution with ironic detachment: the painting time after time from 2021 is based on a tourist photograph, and reflects on numerous appropriations throughout the African continent.