In this first exhibition dedicated exclusively to his paintings, London’s Timothy Taylor Gallery celebrates the work of Berlin-based artist, Volker Hüller (b.1976). Noting a decided move from figuration towards the abstract, this show creates dense, disjointed and textured webs as materials merge and ideas combine in canvas collages.

Created from lengths of material, oil paint and pencil, Hüller’s large-scale canvases are shot through with sinuous lines arching and rebounding, demarcating the canvases and playing with the paintings’ sense of supposed authority. Meanwhile, smudges and the detritus of the studio linger under the painting’s surface leaving the canvases pockmarked and scarred, the signs of a history of continuous editing and revision.

One to take especial note of is a silver work, Bellman’s, composed of fragments of various materials, applied to the canvas with glue and staples to form a loose, layered grid structure. Fine lines dart over the metallic surface in puzzling trajectories – perhaps describing some hidden forms but remaining determinedly enigmatic.

The canvases, on the other hand, flirt with the weighty appearance of heroic Modernist paintings, yet are peppered through with a unnerving and perverse friction. In Falscher Fünfziger, a liminal human body, arms outstretched and clutching a glass, tinged with subtle suggestions of two reclining torsos, hides a maelstrom of curves and patchworks panels.

Volker Hüller: New Paintings, 11 October-9 November, Timothy Taylor Gallery, 15 Carlos Place, London, W1K 2EX.

Credits
1. Volker Huller, Timothy Taylor Gallery, courtesy of the gallery and the artist.