mix up For several years the already pasty colour application of initially figurative pictures, such as Wellenbilder” or “Öltankerbilder”, gained a more and more strong character. The object disappeared, leaving nothing but pure paint behind. Paint was no longer only a means but marked the origin to sculptural, more precisely to modelled paint-objects. Schambeck broke up the classifications of the genre painting and sculpture. Even in the last exhibition at GALERIE Supper with the title “make up” the artist´s complete new approach to paint was visible. Since then his activity has developed consistently. All new is the augmented involvement of so called studio materials. What started off in a playful, experimental way has become an important stylistic device for the artist. Squeezed out tubes of paint, empty buckets, bended lids or scrap plastic bottles grew to integral components of paint-formation. The experimental nature aggravates herein. Random found pieces form the starting point to creative processing. Items of daily use, which can be found thousandfold in every studio, are catalyst for artistic procedures and part of the artwork instead of being thrown away. They do not only give the works of art a novel moment of consistency, materiality and plasticity, they also reveal an almost poetic beauty; as for example an aluminium foil covering or crumpled tinfoil with a slight silver-metallic gloss. Thereon obtained, accidental remnants of paint change from opaque to delicate transparency. Another central material mark those compressed batches of nooses from variable laces and straps, that play an important role in all recently finished workings. They form a new, linear element in the artist´s picture language. Fixed, soaked with paint or just partly coloured with crusted fragments of paint, they illustrate a loosening, expansive part of the otherwise more compact clusters of paint. Overall a good deal of beauty is in the detail, besides the impact of colour application that strikes Schambeck´s pieces of art at first glance, such as the structure that can just be controlled up to a certain degree or the merging of paint. The at times highly contrastive cords of colour, maybe shaped with fingers, as well as gloss level and brilliancy of the formed oil paint open up to plenty of distinctive impressions. A couple of works of art on a wooden base from the series “lucky choice” can be seen, that reveal the edges of the square picture carrier kept uncovered. The actual colour-form-composition focuses on an almost round section in the centre. In contrast to those overflowing, more eruptive formations from the “mix up” series, Schambeck achieves herein a slowdown while increasing the aggravation of twists at the same time. His forms are mere abstract, associations with blossoms are solely in the eye of the beholder. Even though Jochen Schambeck uses paint against all convention as source of sculptural design processes, his surfaces however excel in pictorial grade of quality.
Regina M.Fischer |