Joachim Grommek has developed a work spanning genres and media that cannot be conceived without the relationship to modernity, the play with references, also in the semiotic sense, research in neighboring media.

Grommek uses commercially available chipboard, primes it white, and now uses a repertoire of astonishing trompe-l'œil: with the perfect illusion of the surface of chipboard and different colored adhesive tapes, he creates compositions that were once called "non-representational". In earlier works, Grommek took an analytical approach, adopting the dimensions of Warhol's screen prints, for example, and painting chipboard instead of the surface occupied by the offset print frame. The works on display are without direct reference, but immediately evoke imaginary precursors from modernism. Grommek plays a trick on the concept of the non-representational: The materials depicted create an irresistible tactile appeal, one is tempted to peel off the adhesive tapes, the abstraction is washed out by sensual interest. Although these are representations, Grommek forces the viewer to imagine the materiality of the work, even the invisible ones. He deals with the artistry of "faking" "povera" materials through elaborate manual work, he imagines the real chipboard behind the painted one, studies the edges of the picture. If one initially sees a painted board, a feedback loop between material and representation gradually reveals itself that can no longer be resolved. (...) Based on postmodernist questions about the boundaries and basic parameters of a genre, about reflections and continuations in other media, Joachim Grommek succeeds in developing an individual poetics.

Text: Thomas Ravens, Berlin

Joachim Grommek (* Wolfsburg, lives in Berlin)