An exhibition of eight oil paintings on canvas by Hermann Niebuhr and a selection of photographs by Philip Cundall.
The paintings in Niebuhr's series Spirit on the Water were born of separation and longing when the artist, Hermann Neibuhr, was living in Johannesburg and his partner was on the Cape Coast. Most mornings she would send him a photograph taken on her walks by the lagoon or the ocean. Niebuhr would take these photographs with him to his studio. He began to paint them, simplifying the geographies into purely abstract forms, clearing the images of unnecessary details, until he had a painting that "felt" like he was standing before the water - soothed by looking. Of the artworks, Niebuhrsays: "They are not technically abstract paintings (in the Rothko sense) but rather translations of images of bodies of water being acted upon by light." The finished paintings are made for experiencing in person. Standing before them is to allow the action of light on water to become spirit, engaging the viewer with the charge held within them. The complete series of eight paintings will be shown together in public for the first time at the Koop Projects in Brighton, a city on the south coast of England that is also engaged in a continual conversation with light and water. The works are on view at Koop Projects between the 17th August and the 16th September 2023.