Viktor Kopp
Viktor Kopp’s paintings focus on motif, illusion, perspective, and geometric abstraction, often oscillating between abstraction and representation. As they interrogate the Albertian idea of painting as an open window on the world, and use the pictorial traditions of trompe l'œil or illusionism, the paintings redefine formats and play with the conventions of the frame. Thus, in some paintings the image is only partial, suggesting a much wider field off, left to the viewer’s imagination. Kopp manipulates illusions with some irony, deliberately showing its strengths and/or failures. For example, doors in perspective placed on plain and neutral colour fields seem to float, as if their power of illusion had been deactivated. Similarly, his series of landscapes in grey shades shows the transformation of a quite rough and completely abstract painting into something that comes to a landscape–as the touch becomes tightened and clearer, and the shadows define a space. As they propose a comment about the medium of painting itself, between tribute and parody of various moments of the art history, the works of Viktor Kopp are puzzles in which the viewer is invited to drift away.
He has had solo exhibitions at Bureau in New York, Passagen Linköpings Konsthall, and …
Viktor Kopp’s paintings focus on motif, illusion, perspective, and geometric abstraction, often oscillating between abstraction and representation. As they interrogate the Albertian idea of painting as an open window on the world, and use the pictorial traditions of trompe l'œil or illusionism, the paintings redefine formats and play with the conventions of the frame. Thus, in some paintings the image is only partial, suggesting a much wider field off, left to the viewer’s imagination. Kopp manipulates illusions with some irony, deliberately showing its strengths and/or failures. For example, doors in perspective placed on plain and neutral colour fields seem to float, as if their power of illusion had been deactivated. Similarly, his series of landscapes in grey shades shows the transformation of a quite rough and completely abstract painting into something that comes to a landscape–as the touch becomes tightened and clearer, and the shadows define a space. As they propose a comment about the medium of painting itself, between tribute and parody of various moments of the art history, the works of Viktor Kopp are puzzles in which the viewer is invited to drift away.
He has had solo exhibitions at Bureau in New York, Passagen Linköpings Konsthall, and Konsthallen Hamnmagasinet in Varberg, among other venues. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Museum för modern konst in Vasa.
Courtesy of Ribordy Contemporary
