Markus Weis
Passage

Opening reception January 14th, 2011, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
January 15th – February 26th, 2011

In his solo exhibition “Passage” in the Jarmuschek + Partner Gallery, the painter Markus Weis, who lives in Berlin, continues his series of works from sections of interior rooms. In the tranquil and yet atmospherically charged pictures, created with great technical precision, Weis turns our eye away from the depth of the room to a single layer of the picture in which the object presented to us dissolves in the blurred colouring at times more than others. Regardless whether the accuracy of many of Weis’ works seems to closely resemble photography, they are not simple copies by any stretch of the imagination. Here it is about painting, painting by means of which the object, despite its almost tangibly plastic representation, seems to become an abstract composition of light and dark, motion and stasis. It is this contradiction, the juxtaposition of illusion and reality, of abstract and realism which give Weis’ paintings their intensity. It is also the moment of stillness, the quietness as well as the lack of motion, captured in Weis’ works which creates a near to empty atmosphere. Rooms which seem to be plucked from time and to survive without human beings, leaving only traces of those who are absent. The simple reproduction of an object, previously used by people - the section of a sofa, an open door - hints to the prior presence of a person currently invisible. The theme in Markus Weis’ pictures becomes the act of beholding itself and we gladly accept the invitation to dive into his painted rooms and to behold them in tranquillity. Markus Weis was born in Koblenz in 1965. He studied fine arts at the Academy of Art in Arnheim/Netherlands and as well in Rome/Italy and Gießen/Germany. Amongst other grants he received the most prestigious grant of the German Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation. Upon exhibiting successfully in major cities such as London, Barcelona or Berlin Jarmuschek + Partner now is pleased to present “Passage”, the artist’s second solo show at the gallery.