Axel Geis

Arriving at Axel’s studio I was welcomed by a lively atmosphere and the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the air. I did not remain long as he was working on several large format paintings simultaneously. Emphasizing that he intended to finish one of the paintings in particular before his upcoming show at the Wentrup gallery – which he did!  It was to become the first in a new series of paintings, taking a scene from the 1982 Hans...

Arriving at Axel’s studio I was welcomed by a lively atmosphere and the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the air. I did not remain long as he was working on several large format paintings simultaneously. Emphasizing that he intended to finish one of the paintings in particular before his upcoming show at the Wentrup gallery – which he did!  It was to become the first in a new series of paintings, taking a scene from the 1982 Hans Geissendorfer movie “Der Zauberberg” as a reference.

Similar to his “Chandelier“ paintings, which let the viewer see multiple sides of the same object, these will lead us over and away from a dining table, awarding us changing views of the same scene. Movement and perspective thereby become an important element in the work on display at Wentrup.

The reduced palette paintings currently in his studio all have the figure at its center. Even while using movie scenes as inspiration, Axel is not trying to achieve likeness, as one of his most recent unfinished paintings clearly shows - omitting the face, hands and legs entirely – instead, making the torso float over soothing swirls of soft pink.