Christopher Kieling

Berlin-based artist Christopher Kieling graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA in Graphic Design. In his meticulously planned paintings, flat planes of colour characterised by muted pastel tones provide the backdrop for works which explore the balance between realism and simple form.

Influenced by the mathematically inspired works of Escher and Uglow, Kieling explores the pure language of painting - form, colour, composition -through layered imagery.

Combining hard geometric patterns and fluid simple lines, he creates the illusion of depth, drawing the eye into and across the surface as well as into vistas and interior spaces.

Sierra RS With Plant

He says, “Furthering my interest in juxtaposition, I use solid colour fields, a minimalist technique, to subtly weave my own realism onto the canvas. Carefully mixed oil paint creates the illusion of depth. Hard shadows underline this third dimension, an unsettling limitation to the generous backgrounds. By reducing the setting to simple forms, the observer is asked to engage and fill in the blanks. Breaking with visual expectations and building an unexpected wall between the conventional and modern pose not only questions of style, but also of emotion.”

He began producing paintings of figures at the beach before lockdown, and continued with the theme through the pandemic. He says “Lockdown was a limitation in a spatial sense and also for subject matter. Everything was reduced to what I had in the apartment - my girlfriend Sierra, my dog, a wall and props from around the apartment, such as plants. I continued with the figures at the beach and let my indoor life, and the situation we were in, flow into the paintings. By giving the paintings a spatial limitation that everyone was experiencing, it is a play on someone who wants to be elsewhere - which is why Sierra is wearing the bathing suit.”

Kieling’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Sothebeez, Tribes Media, Berlin (2019), Baladi, K49 Galerie, Cologne (2019), Matter, Uli Fischer Galerie, Berlin (2018) and Contrastat The Book Club, London (2012). In 2010, Kieling was the recipient of BarTur photography award and the degree show CAN Audience Award. He is represented by Grove Square Galleries, London.

christopherkieling.com

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