SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Nils Dunkel 
" light life memories "
january 25 - march 8 2025
flatmarkus, kilchberg / zurich

From the beginning of the Renaissance, as art abandoned the hegemony of the Church, painting entered into a kind of competition of illusion. Canvases became windows in which moments were frozen, documenting scenes from myth and bible, thick luxurious fabrics and the stern faces of the rich, decadent displays of cornucopia in Dutch pronkstilleven paintings. In the 19th century as photography appeared painters sought to capture moments of light and atmosphere that the new technology could not, the light within paintings became the definitive defense for its creation. Yet, even the Impressionists had to deal with the advancement of the industrial age in their own way as electrical lines and poles popped up in the landscapes of Sisley and Monet. As painting entered modernism and what amounted to design, and eventual pop factory production, entered the canon, the question remained: what good did a handcrafted memory in oozing oil serve? What was abandoned when art left the sacred religious halls and entered the homes of the rich and eventually what we know as museums today?
In the work and installations of Nils Dunkel exists a kind of conglomeration of all that was lost and gained in this centuries long change. Painting and photography hold hands, rather than oppositions. Digital processes are made real, as layers and transparencies physically press against one another. Like product packaging or presents where the surprise has no delay. Images of fantastic creatures and stock romantic destinations compete against the found, as vintage designs are rolled across photographic surfaces - abstracting and clarifying - rejecting the artist’s hand as they show it. The decorative low end, images meant to allow a mimicry of the luxurious patterned interiors or the world travels of the privileged, becomes an aspect of the ultimate luxury, art. But it is light that is the sensual center point of these pieces. Dunkel creates works that exist in contrast, that add another layer over our world, one that changes with the sun or with his electric control over it. As lamps and bulbs entered art history in the post-war period aspects of the ordinary were reintroduced to elements of the divine, erased when painting sought to mimic light and artist’s turned their backs on the cinemas that cathedrals offered. When light is controlled, just like with photography (another form of light control), time itself becomes tangible to be manipulated. Memory becomes not fleeting but something we are promised might be preserved if we consume enough in the right way. In Nils Dunkel’s pieces there’s a desirable superficial quality that reaches back into the spiritual. An entire history of recording aspirational worlds melded with a creation as rooted in the past as is to the image production lines of our present.
Mitchell Anderson, Zurich, January 2025
Nils Dunkel
" sailing on sand "
January 20 –​​​​​​​ March 2 2024
contemporary fine arts, berlin

Nils Dunkel
" schnee im frühling "
January 31 –​​​​​​​ february 4 2024
raum 001 at kunstakademie düsseldorf
​​​​​​​
Nils Dunkel
" to float even more "
January 27 –​​​​​​​ March 11 2023
tart vienna at galerie elisabeth & klaus thoman, vienna​​​​​​​

Nils Dunkel
" Night bloom "
November 11 2022 –​​​​​​​ May 5 2023
MKRG AT girardethaus, düsseldorf

Nils Dunkel
" Sommer RG "
 July 6 –​​​​​​​ 31 2022
Walther König at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

Nils Dunkel
" Ich dich gesehen habe "
 september 2 –​​​​​​​ 5 2021
birkenstrasse 20, düsseldorf

Nils Dunkel
" Fragments "
 september 12 –​​​​​​​ october 26 2019
Galerie aurel scheibler, berlin​​​​​​​

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Nils Dunkel
" DNA Carnation "
( What are we living for? )
November 4 –​​​​​​​ 8 2020
Empty spaces e.v., düsseldorf

Nils Dunkel
" Fire Violet "
( WINTer Rundgang )
February 5 –​​​​​​​ 9 2020
RAUM 214 AT Kunstakademie düsseldorf

art fairs
Nils Dunkel
" Vanity art fair "
( BOOTH H09 )
april 12 –​​​​​​​ 14 2024
galerie elisabeth & klaus thoman, art düsseldorf