Category Archives: James Geccelli

James Geccelli – Recent Paintings and Works on Paper

“Strictly speaking, there are no elements of painting in Geccelli’s pictures. What could count as the most basic building block always proves to be undivided, changeable, instable. Geccelli’s work begins before simplicity, since what is visible is not yet separated and hence not yet brought back together… The line no longer bears witness exclusively to perception, but also to bodily movement… The line is therefore not elementary, but instead a phenomenon of indifference that only afterwards branches into what is seen and what is drawn, into the visual and the corporeal. It is similarly the case with the ground. Therefore, it is much too simple to presume that the ground is a given and stable entity. Without doubt, the painter first levels out and primes the picture medium, but he also paints over the colour lines again with white, to such an extent that their graphical and coloration effects are more or less strongly muted. For Geccelli, then, establishing a ground not only means preparing a surface for the drawing; it is equally important that the drawing can again sink into this ground. The foundation of painting is also its veil… and we also sense the risk of neutralisation associated with the use of this colour. It is precisely this risk that Geccelli seeks: For it alone also allows a new picture to be painted.” (Ralph Ubl, University of Chicago)

O.T. 2014

O.T. 2014

James Geccelli – Recent Paintings. Forthcoming show at RAUMX London

Berlin based artist James Geccelli is showing his recent paintings and works on paper.

“ There are different layers of paint on a surface that we call a painting. These specific paintings are a result of an investigation to isolate or claim different periods of time to hold on to an instance of awareness to rescue it from the neutralizing effect of daily life’s continuum .        They are moments of perceptions.” J.G.

www.james-geccelli.de

James Geccelli O.T. 2015

James Geccelli
O.T. 2015

Left: O.T. work on paper, 2015 Right: O.T. oil on canvas, 2015

Left: O.T. work on paper, 2015
Right: O.T. oil on canvas, 2015

O.T. oil on canvas, 2015

O.T. oil on canvas, 2014

 

“And on windy days, one sees how
the wind whirls around the leaves,
even though, as you can see, there are no trees here”
Juan Rulfo

Even when we talk about looking at a picture, we do, indeed, when looking at a picture, fall back on experiences previously gained by all the senses with which we see, smell, taste, hear, and feel. The space of the image more or less presupposes a being rooted in real space. A picture resonates with past emotions and memories, with what has remained of the visibility of a conveyed history: a cognition divided in multiple ways. Where is up and where is down, where is right and where is left? A trace can be discerned with the first direction taken. I can follow the trace, it may become stronger or lose itself, get lost, lead astray. If I lose the trace, I search for it in order to return to it. The trace stands out; it shows itself on the picture surface in color and form. The surface is newly divided, a sort of camouflage, old and new traces cross each other, forms hide by integrating themselves in other forms. Orientation settles down between picture surface and picture subject; between real space and image space. Between the materiality of the picture and its effect: showing itself over there on the wall variably from near or from far, from its edges or its center. Between the inside of the image and the borders of its pictorial body, is a density of probability.
JG

 „Und an windigen Tagen sieht man,
wie der Wind Blätter herumwirbelt, obwohl es
hier, wie du siehst, gar keine Bäume gibt“
Juan Rulfo

Auch wenn wir davon reden, dass wir uns ein Bild ansehen, greifen wir doch, wenn wir ein Bild sehen,  auf vorangegangene Erfahrungen all der Sinnesorgane zurück, mit deren Hilfe wir sehen, riechen, schmecken, hören und tasten. Der Bildraum setzt mehr oder weniger eine Verwurzelung im realen Raum voraus. Ein Bild ist voll von Echos vorangegangener Emotionen und Erinnerungen, Reste der Sichtbarkeit einer vermittelten Geschichte: ein vielgeteiltes Erkennen. Wo ist hier oben, wo ist unten, wo rechts, wo links? Mit der ersten Richtung findet sich eine Spur. Die Spur kann ich aufnehmen, sie kann sich ausbilden aber auch verlieren, verlaufen, in die Irre führen. Verlier ich die Spur, so suche ich die Spur, um auf sie zurückzukommen.  Die Spur setzt sich ab, sie zeigt sich auf der Bildfläche in Farbe und Form. Es kommt zu einer  neuen Unterteilung der Fläche, eine Art Camouflage, alte und neue Spuren, die sich überschneiden,  Formen, die sich verbergen, in dem sie sich in andere Formen eingliedern. Zwischen Bildfläche und Bildgegenstand, zwischen Realraum und Bildraum, zwischen der Materialität des Bildes und seiner Wirkung pendelt sich die Orientierung ein:  dort an der Wand zeigt sich mit dem Bild mal nah, mal fern, mal von seinen Rändern her, mal aus seiner Mitte heraus zwischen dem Inneren des Bildes und den Rändern des Bildkörpers eine Art Wahrscheinlichkeitsdichte.
JG