Daniel KARRER, 2022 Ohne Titel Ohne Titel

Eight years ago, Daniel Karrer discovered and embraced the medium of reverse glass painting. The technique gave him new artistic freedom and ease in his approach to painting, as the glass pane that serves as a substrate keeps the painting, in a sense, at a certain distance. Karrer is primarily interested in the relationship between painting, image, and abstraction. In reverse glass painting, on the one hand, the sensory facet of materiality, the surface, is trapped behind a pane, while on the other hand the paint takes on a very particular presence due to the glass. This is grounded in refraction of light, rendering the colors more luminous and creating a sense in viewers of sharply focused forms, akin to high-resolution, digital images on a screen. In “Untitled,” largely horizontally aligned expanses of color suggest a landscape. Initial impressions are however deceptive, for the work actually references the famous painting “The Dead Toreador” by Edouard Manet. In the original, the lifeless body lies on the ground. In executing his version, Karrer opted to deliberately depict the figure using black acrylic paint, as it adheres less well to the glass when wet and peels off. Chance plays an important role in this context, as the artist is not entirely in control of which parts of the figure will not adhere and which will stick. Karrer is however not primarily concerned with the selected motif, but with transposing it into an abstract painting and with the process per se.

Swiss artist Daniel Karrer (Binningen/CH 1983) studied at the Basel Academy of Art and Design and at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. In 2017 Daniel Karrer was awarded a STRABAG Artaward International Recognition Award.