Dirk Skreber: The Long Hello

„… in this district I started my research on paint ingredients in 1966, in my first outdoor studio. All this material was collected for disposal each day by this paint factory that had just opened. My father was the head of its chemical laboratories and moved our whole family into a house on the same grounds where the new factory was built.
In these years of freedom, I went to my new outdoor studio daily, weather permitting, and gave myself free rein in examining every conceivable kind of paint container, from small cans to barrels containing over 200 liters.“

Dirk Skreber, Studio-Stories, Typhoon Verlag, 2007
Capitain Petzel is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of Dirk Skreber. The new works created for “The Long Hello” can be seen in the gallery’s main room and in the lower level.

In a total of 31 works, he makes use of new techniques and materials. While his paintings had previously been carried out on canvas or wood, aluminum honeycomb panels now provide the base for collages made of extremely diverse materials, which are applied in layers.

The principle of balance and imbalance plays an overarching role throughout all of the works. His working process stretches all the way from the application of the background color and using a computer to produce masters for printing to the use of large quantities of microcrystalline wax and various paint ingredients. At some areas on the panels, Dirk Skreber uses a propane torch to enliven the utilized materials. The oil paint and wax melt together, small “soft” explosions occur if the oil is still wet, and it becomes possible to reshape the print applied to the wax.

Dirk Skreber lives and works in New York.