Luminous abstract paintings from German artist Rafael Gerlach, a.k.a. SatOne, will be popping up at Paris-based art venue, Galerie Openspace, this April, for a solo exhibition, entitled, Key Stimulus. Born in Venezuela, SatOne got his start making graffiti during the 1990s, and eventually went into training as a graphic designer. Now, working mostly out of Munich, SatOne's paintings are making an impression on the world of abstract art through a self reflexive exploration of color, shape, and distortion.
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His works are a self-proclaimed divorce from any sort of art movement in the art historical canon. The selection of works in Key Stimulus find themselves somewhere between painting and collage, combining the bold and rich painting style of someone like Georgia O’Keefe with the geometric disassociation of Kurt Schwitters’ collages. SatOne's abstract patterns comprise a certain three-dimensional element that engages your sense of perspective and pops out of the frame. Editor-in-Chief of contemporary art publication Steidz Magazine, Maxime Gasinier, writes that the work, “stresses the ambiguity between clarity and the brutality of the gesture—conveyed by his distinctive, circuit brush strokes—that is harnessed to achieve the desired kinaesthetic effect.”
According to the gallery, Gerlach sees his art studio as a sort of “experimental laboratory, fostering a rich, free aesthetic,” an art space shielded from the sway of popular art criticisms and tastes that, much like his paintings, encourage their own self-reflection and critical contemplation. Galerie Openspace writes, “his paintings reveal an introspective reflection that connects the work of art and the spectator.” Gasinier further explains how SatOne’s paintings provide a vivid visual stimulus that, through the platform of the abstract image, allow for viewers to project their own feelings and ideas onto the painting without ever knowing the artist’s intention. Abstraction for ambiguity’s sake.
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The artist writes, “I express a feeling or a situation by choosing the painting as a language, as I can’t find words for it. I therefore create partially or totally coded images that only the spectator can decipher.”
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