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<\/p>\nAt the Berlin gallery Kornfeld Galerie, you can visit an exhibition that uses color to evoke an acceptance of unpredictability, the passage of time, and the irreversibility of events. The exhibition, curated by Charles Moore, features the works of artist Nick Dawes, who has been experimenting with the randomness of color\u2019s effect for years through a process in which attention, care, and acceptance of the unpredictability of the mark are essential elements, creating a visual structure that emerges directly from the interaction of gesture with material.<\/p>\n
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Nick Dawes, \u201cTrace Elements\u201d, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin<\/p>\n
Through a slow, thoughtful process based on observation of the substrate\u2019s reaction to color, Nick Dawes superimposes several layers of diluted oil paint over the untreated canvas. Process is essential in his work. Although it may seem definitive and premeditated at first glance, his works are actually the result of a continuous negotiation between the artist\u2019s application of color and the unpredictable effect created by its absorption into the support. The raw canvas, in fact, absorbs the color, creating halos and shapes that interact with the artist\u2019s eye. The artist, in turn, receives and interprets the support\u2019s feedback, responding with additional layers, concatenating visual suggestions generated by a process of continuous influence, presenting their synthesis to the viewer without filters.<\/p>\n
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trace-Elements-Nick-Dawes-installation-view-Kornfeld-Gallery3-300x201.png\")
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Nick Dawes, \u201cTrace Elements\u201d, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin<\/p>\n
The post-World War II Color Field Painting movement, which used large layers of color to envelop the viewer in an all-encompassing visual and emotional experience, was of great importance to the artist. This approach, adapted to incorporate the depiction of process, in Nick Dawes\u2019s practice transforms from an observation that aims for transcendence to a vision that observes the passage of time, interpreting abstract synthesis not as a gateway to escape reality but as a way to remain within it with an attitude of care, attention, and slow observation. The viewer is not simply drawn to the work\u2019s colors but is immersed in a perceptual flow that narrates the process through color, a color that from surface becomes a true structure.<\/p>\n
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trace-Elements-Nick-Dawes-installation-view-Kornfeld-Gallery4-300x201.png\")
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Nick Dawes, \u201cTrace Elements\u201d, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin<\/p>\n
The artists Nick Dawes draws inspiration from are internalized and interpreted in a language that highlights time, which becomes a process through the application of color. Essential in this regard is the figure of Ed Clark, who, with broad layers of color created by painterly gestures applied with very broad brushstrokes, created with a suggestion that movement on the surface became the subject of the work, thus exposing the experiential nature of artistic practice. This characteristic is not found in the works of Mark Rothko, from whom he assimilates the idea of \u200b\u200bprolonged exposure. Although Rothko\u2019s works are directed toward the exploration of a metaphysical stillness, Nick Dawes\u2019s works similarly explore the spatial and emotional conditions that color can evoke. Finally, a key reference point was the work of Sam Gilliam, who transcended the two-dimensionality of the painted surface to create works that expanded into space. In this case, while creating structurally two-dimensional works, Nick Dawes finds space within the support, within the texture of the canvas itself, depicting, through transparency and the overlapping layers of paint, the optical depth afforded by the encounter of color with the support.<\/p>\n
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trace-Elements-Nick-Dawes-installation-view-Kornfeld-Gallery-300x200.png\")
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Nick Dawes, \u201cTrace Elements\u201d, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin<\/p>\n
Nick Dawes\u2019s works thus internalize the lessons of postwar artists without explicitly citing them, reflecting on the questions they left open. The use of oil paint, a medium that requires time and technical skill and precision, is used as a tool to create a synthesis that articulates the dialogue between the material of the support and the effects it creates. The artist is left with the task of acknowledging the synthesis created and adding, if necessary, another layer that will unpredictably create its chromatic effects, inhabiting the space of the surface. Care, attention, and respect for the timing of painting coexist in an exhibition that, despite displaying two-dimensional works, leads the viewer to experience a real space, inhabited by color.<\/p>\n
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trace-Elements-Nick-Dawes-installation-view-Kornfeld-Gallery5-300x200.png\")
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Nick Dawes, \u201cTrace Elements\u201d, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin<\/p>\n
This, in turn, while not losing its visual and emotional power, does not highlight a world that escapes reality but instead aims to reveal time, the creative process. The visual effects of color, which occupy space within the texture of the canvas, speak to the intention of not wanting to hide randomness, the unpredictability of gesture, and life itself. By embracing the passage of time and observing chance take shape in his work, Nick Dawes\u2019s works ultimately convey a profound sense of acceptance, open-mindedness, and optimism. In contrast to the disruptive attitude of a work conceived, created, and completed, the Trace Elements exhibition values \u200b\u200btime and listening, which, through color, invites visitors to immerse themselves in the unfiltered flow of life it displays.<\/p>\n
Info:<\/p>\n
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