Cleaning the Pool
In Cleaning the Pool (2016), I am removing snow from an abandoned swimming pool in the northern Italian Alps. The lines created are only visible from the zenith perspective, where the edges of the pool frame the scenario. [...] the ephemeral painting is driven by movement, a process of creation through removal. My thoughts on the work: For me, the work is about place, locality and perspective. The lines created are reminiscent of a gestural painting,
which was only visible from the zenith perspective. The edges of the swimming pool become the frame of an ephemeral painting. The body movement, a performative act, becomes important to the work, the center of attention, by making the process of creating something by removing visible.
Obscura (Yellow)
Oil, Pastell, Wax on MDF Plate
2,00 x 5,00 m
The work exhibited here in Afgang demonstrates the effect of time through a painterly language: layering. Indeed, Jonas approaches the canvas like a filmmaker, constructing images that evolve through time - moments unfolding, dissolving, then transforming. Across the painting we see a constant negotiation between levity and heaviness, indicating the evolution of the subjects he seeks to depict.
Drawing inspiration from cinema, fossils, and the history of fresco painting, this artwork contains images that emerge and recede. Jonas is particularly interested in how mass imagery, from historical archives to private photographs, shape our understanding of the world. Some areas of his paintings contain printed elements, while others remain fluid and gestural, creating a dialogue between mechanical reproduction and the hand’s fluidity.
Relics for a Possible Future
Inspired by the expressiveness of the paintings and frescoes of historical Italian masters and fascinated by the role they played in the world view of the people of that time, I began the series of works Relicts for a Possible Future. Particularly the effect of weathered frescoes as a viewer and the realization that everything that surrounds us is subject to a process of decay and thus only remains as a fragment for future generations became the basis for the work. In search of a similarly functioning dogma in our time, collages were created from collected contemporary newspaper and online media images, which were then transferred on wooden panels and canvases.
Lexion (Dissolvable)
Variable Dimensions
Soap, Metal
Playground, 2022
Inkjet on billboard paper, 500 x 950 cm