Bernard Lokai: Painting
In two distinct bodies of work, German painter Bernard Lokai explores the seemingly infinite possibilities of paint applied to canvas.
The first body of work, which he calls Landscape Blocks, is comprised of grids of 12 x 16 inch panels in which he both refers to and disrupts the history of painting. Each panel is a stand-alone abstract work. Some of them clearly allude to recognizable conventions, techniques or even specific artists, while others undermine those connections and still others have no recognizable precedent. He then arranges (and sometimes spends years rearranging) them into grids of 18 to 33 components, which together form the impression of a landscape. The tension between abstraction and representation operates as a metaphor for philosophical examinations of appearance and disappearance, permanence and impermanence, creation and destruction.
Individual large canvases form the second body of work. These make room for bold expressions of color and mark-making and often combine multiple painting techniques within a single work. From sprayed neon acrylics to thickly applied, gestural brushstrokes in oil, Lokai’s purpose is neither to express emotion nor reference a particular subject. Rather, his practice ceaselessly probes the traditions and tropes of painting in unbounded pursuit of latent meanings and potential.
Bernard Lokai was born in 1960 in Bohumín, Czechoslovakia. After his parents escaped from the former Czechoslovakia, Lokai grew up in Düren, Germany. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Gerhard Richter and now resides in Düsseldorf.
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Bernard LokaiElements, 2016acrylic and oil on canvas78 3/4 x 157 1/2 in
200 x 400.1 cm -
Bernard LokaiUntitled, 2018acrylic on canvas (2)each 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches/30 x 40 cm
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Bernard LokaiUntitled, 2017oil on canvas55 1/8 x 78 3/4 in
140 x 200 cm -
Bernard LokaiStrahl, 2018acrylic on canvas23 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
60 x 45.1 cm -
Bernard LokaiBright, 2019acrylic on canvas (9)overall 51 1/8 x 63 3/4 inches/130 x 162 cm
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Bernard LokaiUntitled, 2016acrylic on canvas17 3/4 x 23 5/8 in
45.1 x 60 cm -
Bernard LokaiConstellation, 2016acrylic and oil on canvas (15)overall 51 1/8 x 111 3/4 inches/129.9 x 283.8 cm
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Bernard LokaiUntitled, 2018acrylic on canvas55 1/8 x 78 3/4 in
140 x 200 cm -
Bernard LokaiMagenta, 2011oil on canvas55 1/8 x 78 3/4 in
140 x 200 cm -
Bernard LokaiUntitled, 2019acrylic on canvas (2)each 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches/30 x 40 cm
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Bernard LokaiUntitled, 2017acrylic on canvas55 1/8 x 78 3/4 in
140 x 200 cm -
Bernard LokaiSplitter, 2019acrylic on canvas55 1/8 x 78 3/4 in
140 x 200 cm