DUVE Berlin is pleased to announce its upcoming show of new works by Argentinian painter Ivan Comas. The exhibition is the artist’s first solo presentation in a gallery setting in Europe.
Comas uses industrial materials such as household paint and cement to create paintings suggesting an ever- changing urban environment. In his latest works, which he produced in Berlin, he combined these materials with photography and UV printing. The visual tension in Comas’ pieces is rooted in his thematic preferences. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, educated in Paris and living between Los Angeles and Berlin, he uses the construction and deterioration of metropolitan cities as a starting point for his canvases. By overlaying printed images of shadows on their slightly textured surface, he explores the intersection between green spaces and and the urban landscape of the city.
Another topic often investigated by the artist is the effect of civil and political intervention on the urban space. His paintings, hardly ever pristine, often include elements of the - at first - visual consequences of vandalism, gentrification, graffiti or urban decay. Thus, they become reflections on the citizen’s role in not only the tangible, but also the intangible changes happening to her or his surroundings.
Comas is an observer of the space he evolves in; while his previous works, produced in Los Angeles, were dryer and tended towards a monochromatic palette, the works produced during the Summer in Berlin include colors and lush, organic shapes. For his upcoming exhibition at DUVE Berlin, Comas will develop his production process further, carrying on his investigation of the always challenging inclusion of figurative elements in abstract painting. Additionally, an installation is planned, the first ever to be realized by the artist.