When: 25.04–31.08.2025

Opening: 25.04, 6 PM

Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun

Curator: Krzysztof Białowicz

Coordination: Anna Buller, Cezary Kruk

Through his large abstract oil paintings Wolfgang Wirth explores the possibilities in contemporary painting. His works concern territories and spaces in the broad sense and with variations of their change.

His artistic practice can be viewed as research work. Wirth’s painting constitutes not only visual matter, it is a cognitive area too that enables the artist to challenge the status quo of our society.

Contained in the main part of the exhibition, the Ornamental Shift series shows pictorial spaces that go beyond the boundaries of the paintings, revealing a vast geometric structure supported by colour gradients. The paintings create mutually complementing intersections, tensions and voids. White areas disclosing primed canvas are at once a chasm and a field for contemplation. The sharp edges of geometric forms create a strong contrast with the delicate sfumato of the backgrounds, referencing theoretical discourses on painting dating back to the 16th century.

The extensive installation Ornamental Confrontation references gestures of populist politics. By mirroring and turning a small fragment of a decoration in the backdrop of a press photo of a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un the artist created a set of paintings with a strongly iconic character.

The Oval Office section of the show sheds light on political “space.” Large-format works focus on the field of power. In Wirth’s pieces it takes the form of an open platform for dialogue, although not free from ideological references. On the one hand, distinct red, blue, white and black stripes, echoing the pattern of the wooden floor in the Oval Office, seem to be deconstructing national and pop culture symbols while, on the other hand, attractive tonal transitions in elliptical shapes open up spaces for alternative figures of thought.

The paintings from the Territories series address the subject of overlapping historical inscriptions in territories and their erasure, as well as possible references to a world torn by conflict. By using an old map of the Ottoman Empire, the artist gives expression to his helplessness in the face of the Syrian crisis. The map has been made illegible by multiple layers of black applied to it. Wirth explains that taking things back to the zero point is a gesture meant to make a clear reference to the conceptual theory proposed by American artist Ad Reinhardt. The other works of this series reveal mutually annihilating patterns, drawn from the decorations of the parliament in Damascus, that create complex images whose oppressive nature puts our perception to a severe test.

The Geometries of Change exhibition at Toruń’s CoCA is the most extensive presentation of Wolfgang Wirth’s creative output to date. Visitors will have the chance to observe the artist’s unconventional approach to interpreting an ethically and politically unstable reality. Interestingly, the project features a Polish component. In 2006, the artist stayed in Warsaw as an artist in residence with the lokal_30 gallery. That was when Loop was created; here on display in a specially adapted separate space.

Tags: exhibition