Markus SailePipes 13.12.24—28.02.2025
Skala is pleased to announce Markus Saile’s Pipes.
The series of paintings titled Pipes stand out recognisably from Markus Saile’s work. Although they stick to the consequent exploration within the painting matter, Pipes are seductive in their thriftiness. Leaving us wanting more and feeling perfectly satisfied at the same time.
The shape is often dictated by representation, with the substrate derived from its content. In the Pipes series, however, form—predetermined as a width of 13 cm—becomes the starting point, defining the boundaries of the brushstrokes. The exceptionally narrow surface challenges the artist to balance on the edge of executing precise and satisfying gestures. The traces left by the brush serve as a record of the movement that created them, inscribed into a three-dimensional space delineated by the vectors of the X, Y, and Z axes.
The artist deliberately repeats, intersects, and loops the brush’s path, which results from the hand and body performing a complex set of movements in dialogue with the resistance of the surface. The support imposes boundaries, and the paint, released under pressure, forms a trace that embodies the physicality of the painterly act. Although the surface of the Pipes remains flat, the record of movement, expressed through shapes and tonal variations of the gesture, is so compelling that it transforms the viewer’s perception, creating a sense of dimension that transcends the traditionally understood plane.
The Pipe paintings are a conceptual group of works by the artist which intervene in the syntax of this field of action in a specific way. With their elongated format they explore the transition between picture and object. Pipe is the English name for the vertical-bar punctuation mark now popular in informal writing practices within digital culture. At its most general, the symbol marks the end of one section and the beginning of another. It is a caesura, a cut, but one which at the same time reveals a connection.
Markus Saile ́s (*1981 in Stuttgart) work was featured in numerous exhibitions at galleries and museums. Recent solo exhibitions among others where Everything Folds, Drei, Cologne, EDGE TO EDGE Mai 36 Galerie Zurich, Scala A+B Gallery Brescia and separate | related NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein and Das und gleicht dem Chamäleon Galerie Markus Luettgen, Dusseldorf. He was part of the painting survey show “Jetzt! Painting in Germany today”, at Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Wiesbaden, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz-Museum Gunzenhauser and Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Further his works were featured in numerous solo and group shows among others at Paik Hae Young Gallery, Seoul, Bel Amis, Los Angeles, Museo Licini, Ascoli Piceno, Italy, Pinacoteca Emilio Notte Ceglie Messapica, Italy, Markus Lüttgen Dusseldorf, Temporary Gallery Cologne, Galerie Crone Vienna, Mai 36 Zurich, Arp Museum Rolandseck, Strabag Kunstforum Vienna, Galerie DREI Cologne and RECEPTION Berlin.