Illusionism is conjured up and simultaneously deconstructed – what initially appears in the foreground, unexpectedly shifts into the depths and vice versa. Forms build up in front ot the spectator’s eyes, interacting, mutually enhancing, and at the same time deconstructing one another. The various components seem to support each other in their visual effect while playfully sabotaging one another. Everything in the paintings appears to be in flux, in motion, engaged in a joyful exchange, and thus full of energy and life. (Margareta Sandhofer, 2020)
Neonville brings together works by Florin Kompatscher from the past two years, during which the artist increasingly embraced a new, luminous color palette. The introduction of a layer of acrylic paint in neon colours contrasts with the subsequent layers of oil and pigments. Complex patterns emerge in elaboration with a brush, altered by scraping with spatulas, or distorted by peeling off adhesive tape: fan-like linear structures that begin to vibrate in their overlapping; checkered grids, broken at the edges and set into motion; painted areas with both blurred and precisely executed contour lines. This interplay of light and shadow is created purely through color. The high-contrast juxtaposition within the palette gives the impression of backlighting, defining the character of Florin Kompatscher’s new works.
In addition to the titular oil painting, the exhibition presents the All Gates Open, the four-part cycle Ocean Brain, and a paper work on mirror paper from the series Mountains, Seas, and Giants (all 2024 and 2025). Music and literature serve as sources of inspiration for the artist’s titles. Detached from their original context, their interpretation expands through the contemplation of the paintings, incorporating political and philosophical dimensions.
Perceiving the exhibition space itself as a multilayered (visual) composition, Kompatscher once again intervenes spatially in Neonville through the use of color and an unconventional hanging arrangement. This happens ten years after his first spatial interaction, an extension of his paintings onto gallery walls. Now the artist covers the two window portals with translucent films in the primary colors red and blue. Echoing the multilayered structure of his paintings, the work placed in front of the window openings is further enhanced by a changing play of colors. Varying from the left to the right side as well as from the morning to the evening. This alteration of the natural lighting conditions transforms the exhibition space into an extended pictorial realm within the abstract world of Florin Kompatscher.
Florin Kompatscher (*1960 in Bolzano, IT) studied from 1981 to 1986 at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna under Carl Unger and Adolf Frohner. He subsequently had artist residencies in Rome, Madrid, and Paris. Since 2003, the artist lives and works in Berlin. Kompatscher’s first gallery exhibition took place in 1986 in Innsbruck, and he has been represented by Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman ever since. For several decades, Kompatscher has painted exclusively in an abstract style, continuously refining his expertise in the technical execution of complex surface formations. Since the 2010s, his work has increasingly engaged in a dialogue—and competition—with digitally and chemically manipulated surfaces. His last three gallery exhibitions have also been characterized by spatial interventions: schleie farbe lief, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, 2015; COMIX & ATLANTIX, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck, 2020; ROKOKO Tints, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, 2021.
