Into the Unknown
Jurgen Trautwein’s exhibition “Into the Unknown", is his ninth show of paintings at 60SIX. Consistent with most of his painting series the artist used found objects as the canvas. Large print fashion ads in a hanging banner format provide a front and back surface for the work.
Echoing a past suite of works called “Skins”, both sides of the banners have a painted surface. In the series “Skins”, images showed through monochrome paintings and the back was latent but mostly invisible unless turning the piece. In this case the backside becomes the front, which presents controlled accidents made with additive and subtractive processes. Surfaces are built with unpredictable texture, color and composition. Nuances of printmaking, particularly mono printing appear, where the pealed paint from the studio floor merge with paint bleeding through the front. Unexpected images emerge, reminiscent of aerial typography or landscapes. No boundary exists here in what mark came from what circumstance.
Trautwein violating the surface within a finessed dance of intention, chaos, deliberation and accident, results in a rich, unbridled sensibility to these paintings.
