Capturing light has challenged and inspired artists for centuries as they have sought to express its physical and spiritual, concrete and abstract dimensions. In the exhibition ‘Light Revealed’, Karin Weber Gallery introduces three artists, all of whom engage with light in their individual, highly distinctive ways – be it as their main subject, or to enhance and enliven their work. Complexities of light come to the fore in light/ dark contrasts, in rugged textures and shimmering surfaces, but also in juxtapositions between natural and man-made, created and coincidental.
Resident in New Zealand, Hungarian-born Peter Panyoczki, also makes his first Hong Kong appearance at Karin Weber Gallery. Panyoczki draws inspiration from nature and uses light on several dimensions. Miniature rods on a light box cast a Braille-type inscription over an image of jasmine flowers, emphasising not only the natural radiance of the flower petals, but in doing so ironically drawing the viewer’s attention to the absolute in darkness – blindness. Another work, ‘0/1’, marries a wood-like rough surface with the finest gold leaf to create an almost prehistoric fingerprint pattern. Nature is brought to life, and to light, through this simple contrast.
The work of German artist Tina Buchholtz celebrates light with vibrant colours and finely detailed textures. Metallic and pearlescent pigments introduce a dreamlike, ethereal quality alongside intricate, linear layers of acrylic. Inspirations for Buchholtz’s highly abstract compositions are drawn from a multitude of sources, including the natural world, literature and mythology. Tina Buchholtz lives and works in Berlin, where her work can be found in the German Parliament and in many other private and public collections. ‘Light Revealed’ is her fifth show in Hong Kong.
Gallery newcomer Udo Nöger’s focus is ‘light as a material.’ A series of multilayered, translucent canvases, the artist creates surfaces which absorb light from their immediate surroundings and reflect it back at the viewer, thus making it tangible. Deceptively simple, organic shapes highlight the contrast between light and shadow, positive and negative, consistently guiding and returning the viewer to Nöger’s central subject. Swiss born Udo Nöger has shown extensively in Europe and North America. His Asian debut was a recent show in Beijing, and now in Hong Kong.
