Daniel Karrer

Daniel Karrer has conceived two new works for the exhibition “From Object to Ornament”. The first consists of a series with a wrapped car. The lithograph of the car is presented in an artist's frame behind oil-painted glass. The blue has an ever-changing shimmer, and the height of the painted surface also varies from image to image. It is unclear whether this is a graphic, purely abstract symbolism or whether there is a political statement behind it, such as a criticism of industrial production and the associated rising water levels. The motif of the shrouded car shows a kind of rendering. Although the surface of the object remains vague, the silhouette of the car expresses the fetish object, which can equally trigger fascination and aversion, and furthermore represents a status and political symbol.

The table edge, the second motif in a small edition of eight, has become a “classic” among Daniel Karrer's motifs. It functions as a contrast to and continuation of the car motif, as the blue surface serves as a connecting element between the two works. The table edge and the change of perspective stand for the clash of representational and abstract painting and printmaking. Karrer leaves unanswered whether this is a spatial illusion or merely a tablecloth with ornamental decorations that disappears into the vast plane of space.

In his painting, Daniel Karrer is interested in the surface quality of objects and their disguise. Following on from various historical sculptural positions such as Antonio Corradino or Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Karrer's painting focuses on the objecthood and materiality of formal elements. The veiling of true surfaces is reflected in representational planes, as well as in motifs of the hidden. Karrer paints enigmatic objects that seem comprehensible on the one hand but unfathomable on the other - water, mountains, carpets, tablecloths, hedges, but also renderings, computer-generated shells that represent volumes but actually have no corporeality and represent an interplay of texture and volume. The artist explores the medium and thus questions the nature of image and likeness in painting and graphics - namely, the representation of reality through a flat and often plain surface.

Daniel Karrer's last institutional solo exhibitions were at Kunstmuseum Olten (2021) and Kunsthalle Arbon (2019). His works have been shown at Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel, and Kunsthalle Basel, among others. His works are part of the collections of the Kunstkredit Basel Stadt and Baselland and the Kunstmuseum Olten.