Luminous Traces

Slut dato: 2023-11-25

Toon Berghahn

04.11 – 25.11

Luminous Traces

The Dutch visual artist Toon Berghahn is current in the upcoming exhibition "Luminous Traces", which will be shown at gallery NB from November 4th. Toon has been part of the gallery for 10 years, and it is therefore a great pleasure that we can open this exciting exhibition, which shows Toon's special abilities as a visual artist, says gallerist Thorkild NB Nielsen

Link to the artworks

Toon Berghahn is interested in the memories of Life. He is interested in places that we humans relates to. Places we can feel at home, and places that can take us back to a special memory. It could be the first kiss at a bus stop, a journey or perhaps a home. In Tons artworks, the presence of man is only hinted by the traces that man has left. By depriving the works of a direct human story, he gives these paintings a wider meaning. Toon thereby invites you into an open interpretation.

Common to the works is the human construction in the form of houses and constructed buildings. Toon has a speciel talent in design and architecture, and his inspiration from the Bauhaus school is clear. There is a focus on function and form in his works. This is emphasized by Toon's use of MDF boards as a base, and his use of carved MDF elements in the picture frame, which not only create shadows on the painting, but also create special depths in the motifs and emphasize the form in the construction. Where Toon in his constructions is inspired by the Bauhaus school, he uses Romanticism as a reference in the presentation of nature. Toon has a special ability to present nature as alive and almost enchanting, and nature then becomes a contrast to the functional constructions.

Toon's way of showing the human constructions in nature gives the works a tension or duality. Nature is beautiful, but it is also dominant, and in several of the works it feels as if nature is about to take over the human constructions. The question is whether the constructions can protect man from nature. And in addition to this, one might want to ask if man can protect himself from nature? Toon manages to show this current theme in an undramatic way, where the viewer is invited into a place that can be experienced as a memory, but at the same time you can experience a tension towards the nature.

Toon has a very special ability to invite the viewer into his works. With the alluring properties of light, he increases our curiosity. He is particularly fascinated by twilight, and in his works the special atmosphere that twilight provides is experienced. With this light we can see the beauty in the elements, but the light also creates an uneasiness and a tension in the images. In this way, the light helps to underpin the duality that characterizes the exhibition. Toon Berghahn has chosen the title Luminous Traces, and there is no doubt that the works with their luminous traces invite us into both personal and more universal themes, which makes this exhibition and not at least the artist particularly interesting.

Facts:

Artist: Toon Berghahn

Dates: 04.11 - 25.11

Title: Luminous Traces