THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE
Rua da Emenda 72 , Chiado, 1200-170 Lisbon, Portugal
After his successful solo exhibition last summer, ARTCO Gallery is looking forward to Tom Solty's upcoming show in Lisbon. The native Rhinelander is currently living in Portugal’s art metropole to complete his doctorate in classical painting. The series of works created during this time, FLYING IN A SILVER PLANE, will be on view at THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE from July 13 - August 30.
The landscapes on Solty's large-scale canvases are not typically Portuguese though. They depict highways, the concrete skeleton of industrial sites, or a landing approach from an airplane window. The painter takes us on his travels, where we encounter plants, animals, and insects in the midst of these ‚non-places‘. They appear as mediators between worlds, between nature and the Anthropocene; between man as the creator of his environment and its finiteness; between dream and reality after all.
Purely formal, the body of work becomes an exploration of classical landscape painting and floral still life in oil, but adapted to the visual habits of our digital reality by playing with focus and depth of field (evoked by the use of airbrush guns). Or as curator Anna Grebler describes it wonderfully poetic and with borrowings from Werner Herzog:
The noise of the cars on the highway intermingles with the sound of insects, birds, and airplanes flying overhead. In the sky, from the window of the silver airplane, the distance between the landscapes, which range from urban centers to rural plains, makes the remnants of human society gradually disappear.
Between the city lights and the deep forests of the planet, industrial structures and blurred horizons make us wonder about a future in which there will be neither night nor day. The humidity of the rain lingers, the wind shakes the forest outside1. At the bus stop, plants still grow behind the buildings and moths fly around the lamppost.
