Extra Runde. Philipp Gentili, Simon Michalik. Installation view. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Philipp Gentili, Mitschriften (Ohne Titel), 2025. Acryl auf Papier, Holzrahmen. 82,5x62,5 cm. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Simon Michalik. Senza Titolo, 2025. UV-Druck auf Methacrylat, gebürstetes Dibond. je 40x55 cm. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Extra Runde. Philipp Gentili, Simon Michalik. Installation view. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Philipp Gentili, Mitschriften (Ohne Titel), 2025. Installation view. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Simon Michalik, Senza Titolo, 2025. Cyanotypie auf Papier, Dibond. 35x45 cm. Photo:Tiberio Sorvillo
Extra Runde. Philipp Gentili, Simon Michalik. Installation view. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Philipp Gentili, Mitschriften (Ohne Titel), 2025. Acryl und Emaille auf Papier, Holzrahmen. 82,5x62,5 cm. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Philipp Gentili, Mitschriften (Ohne Titel), 2025. Acryl und Emaille auf Papier, Holzrahmen. 82,5x62,5 cm. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Extra Runde. Philipp Gentili, Simon Michalik. Installation view. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo
Extra Runde
Philipp Gentili
Simon Michalik
15.03.25 - 26.04.25
curated by CUT
schaufenster* Hauptstraße 102 Schlanders
The exhibition Extra Runde presents paintings by Philipp Gentili and photographic works by Simon Michalik. By combining, layering and repeating motifs from different contexts, the artists explore the concept of the ‘picture within a picture’ in mutual dialogue. Inspired by the increasing visual stimulation provided by online media, the two artists use abstraction to question our visual perception through the experience of images.
In his paintings on paper and canvas, Philipp Gentili creates forms based on real motifs and subjects them to a process of abstraction so that they remain open to interpretation. His works invite us to look behind the surface in order to recognise the complexity of visual perception between the textures of appearance. In his latest production, the artist continues his exploration of the "biomorphic forms" of painting by using colour to create shapes in an organic way. In some of the paintings on paper, the image field has been divided into different parts by a structure reminiscent of vignettes from comic books or the formal division of images on Instagram, where several images are presented in the same image field. Gentili paints different motifs within a formal logic that determines the classification and competition between the contents. Through this approach, Gentili uses the abstraction of the content to reflect on the patterns of contemporary image distribution and consumption and on the act of seeing itself. The repetition and recurrence of forms is reflected in the paintings as a compositional logic of forms which, although abstract, exhibit analogies and mutual formal references. In this way, the works appear as portals to alternative dimensions of reality, in which painting grows naturally within the spaces allocated to it, transforming the contemporary flood of images into a creative investigation of the relationship between reality and representation.
Simon Michalik's photographic works consist of several photographs taken in places where the artist has lived or travelled to. The individual photos are transferred onto superimposed transparent foils, which enables the simultaneous printing of images from different environments on the same printing surface using cyanotype. In other photographic overlays, photos are digitally printed on aluminium supports that reflect the light and bring reflections of the exhibition space into the composition. In the series of works, the fragmented experience of the reality of photography leads to the creation of new composite images. The originally depicted forms are abstracted through the merging of natural and artificial elements and become new imaginary settings. Created in different places and at different moments, the pictures are exposed to the same time by means of the time-determined influence of light in the cyanotype printing process, within which the original images can change, in order to coexist in a new space-time dimension. By superimposing forms from different contexts, the works reflect an unified experience of reality, between familiarity and alienation. The photographic works reflect the artist's encounter with places and the deterritorialisation of our gaze in the simultaneous experience of images. By combining natural and architectural landscape forms, the works create a shared visual territory that extends the autobiographical experience into an experimental exploration of landscape photography.
The works were created with the intention of developing a common discourse based on affinities in the two artists' individual research. Gentili and Michalik contribute to generating different interpretations of the representation and abstraction of real forms by confronting their painterly and photographic practice with structures and ways of perceiving images that characterise contemporary world.
In collaboration with BASIS Vinschgau Venosta
