John Bauer

Sleight Of Hand

January 21th –
March 13th, 2010
Geneva
  • John Bauer
    Untitled (0945),2009
    Oil and enamel on linen
    50.8 x 40.6 cm
  • John Bauer
    Untitled (0934),2009
    Oil and enamel on ‘linen
    50.8 x 40.6 cm
  • John Bauer
    Untitled (0933),2009
    Oil and enamel on linen
    144 x 114 cm
  • John Bauer
    Stoned and dethroned (0930),2009
    Oil and enamel on linen
    210 x 240 cm
  • John Bauer
    Star fucking (0927),2009
    Oil and enamel on (linen
    213 x 162 cm
  • John Bauer
    Trash and Vaudeville (0931),2009
    Oil and enamel on llinen
    180 x 200 cm
  • John Bauer
    Untitled (0939),2009
    Oil and enamel on (linen
    210 x 240 cm
  • John Bauer
    Loveless (0926),2009
    Oil and enamel on (linen
    213 x 162 cm
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Within Bauer’s paintings, images of abstraction are subjected to different processes of abstract painting. Gestures are photographed and silk screened. Marks are duplicated in different scales within the same painting. Paint is rolled, stencilled, and sprayed. Imagery cancels, deletes, shifts and over-writes itself. Through an analytical painting process that is methodical and immediate, removed and direct, John Bauer remixes the spontaneous act and the programmed decision.

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Through essentially anti-expressionistic means, the work constructs denials and assaults on picture making in an attempt to redirect the viewer, if just for a second.

The title of the exhibition, Sleight of hand, affects a double meaning. Traditionally, sleight of hand refers to a type of illusion where the skills of a magician produce visual tricks so quickly that the manner of execution is unobservable. In painting, the hand imbues the artwork with the authentic presence of the artist, or aura.

John Bauer is not interested in the idea of an artist as a type of magician, but rather in painting which shifts the nature of expression.

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