ausgestellt:

22.05.-12.07.2025 SARAH BECHTER Jostle, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, AT



While “jostle” conveys a sense of overabundance, the figurative paintings are characterized by a dual emptiness. The figures do not assert themselves within a densely populated pictorial space but rather against a backdrop in which they threaten to dissapear. Moreover, in some areas of the composition painted in pigment, ink, and oil paint, the canvas emerges, shifting the focus from subject matter to painterly technique. In Unbalancing This Structure (2025), for example, both moments can be observed: In front of a firmament of blues, violets, and reds, a solitary figure—barely distinguishable from the background—balances on a balustrade. While the fantastic flickering and weightlessness suggest a dreamlike scene, the schematically indicated architecture of the dome frames the painting’s relation to reality. At the apex of the dome, the so-called oculus, the canvas is exposed, bearing only the muted tone of the pigment mixed into the gesso during the priming process. (Leonie Huber, abstract from the exhibition text for ‘Jostle’, 05.2025)