“After completing his studies in fine arts at the HbK Kassel, Axel Plöger lived in Lima, Peru, for six years as an artist. For more than twenty years now, he has been working as a freelance painter with a studio back in Detmold. Improvisation and motivation are two fundamental concepts in Plöger’s painting. In his current series “Dances,” the painter enters the painting in “sessions” separated by time, resulting in an evolving line, structure, or surface—individual stages of the process that are concluded when he steps back from the canvas. No corrections, no improvements; the next act of painting is another application set apart in time. The works, created over such long periods, reveal layers of lines and structures. Time and color combine to form complex pictorial spaces. Luminous colors and diverse structures convey a sense of joy or powerful vitality, while the subdued palette in some works suggests a more introspective or melancholic mood.

When asked about the meaning of his works, the painter says: 

“My paintings are what happens between me and the canvas.”

Paul Schmidt, 2023