To sail, one needs favorable wind in their backs and the open horizon ahead. But what does it take to sail on sand? Sailing evokes a paradise, escape from reality, a leisure, a quest into the unknown. Sailing on sand, on the other hand, evokes a stillstand, a journey leading nowhere. The exhibited paintings contain literal paradise imagery executed on a sandy surface, embodying the ambiguity inherent in the title.
Trained as a sculptor, Dunkel extends the two-dimensional realm of painting into the exhibition space. He achieves this not only by applying layers of pigment to create a sandy and porous surface but also by flipping his canvases and floating them between stretchers, revealing the mechanisms of exhibition making and framing—a simple yet inviting gesture to the behind-the-scenes process. Characterized by a sculptural approach to painting, Dunkel impresses the pattern onto his canvases, rather than applying them with paint.
Although each of the paintings serves as a unique, individual work, they are also a part of a whole, and of a series – mirroring the endless possibilities of repetition (with a difference). For instance, the six-part work PiecEs explicitly embraces the detail-versus-whole modality. Inspired by one of New York’s oldest gay bars of the same name, each painting carries the rainbow color of the individual letter of the club’s name. Dunkel thereby cherishes the memories of his nights at the club, but also can’t help but satirize the arbitrariness of rainbow flags as a sign of LGBTQ solidarity and alliance, and their persistent ubiquity.
When Andy Warhol first started working on his Flowers, Pop Art was already blooming. It negated the individualism of the object in favor of the artist’s own individualism by mass-producing it. A riff of this philosophy permeates not only Dunkel’s blossom works but is also further evident in the sculpture ND 1, a take on a traditional Japanese Kokeshi doll bearing traces of the Nils Dunkel brand. By merging traditional and hyper-modern elements in this oversized, mirror-finish sculpture, Dunkel creates an ironic self-portrait at the heart of the exhibition.
Palms, beaches, waves and good vibes emanate from these pigmented works, resembling reliefs as much as paintings. Dunkel’s sculpted paintings, among others Dolce Vita 1 & 2, all contain the joys and trials of sailing; but to sail or not to sail, that was never the question.
