At the Berlin gallery Kornfeld Galerie, you can visit an exhibition that uses color to evoke an acceptance of unpredictability, the passage of time, and the irreversibility of events. The exhibition, curated by Charles Moore, features the works of artist Nick Dawes, who has been experimenting with the randomness of color’s effect for years through a process in which attention, care, and acceptance of the unpredictability of the mark are essential elements, creating a visual structure that emerges directly from the interaction of gesture with material.
Nick Dawes, “Trace Elements”, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin
Through a slow, thoughtful process based on observation of the substrate’s reaction to color, Nick Dawes superimposes several layers of diluted oil paint over the untreated canvas. Process is essential in his work. Although it may seem definitive and premeditated at first glance, his works are actually the result of a continuous negotiation between the artist’s application of color and the unpredictable effect created by its absorption into the support. The raw canvas, in fact, absorbs the color, creating halos and shapes that interact with the artist’s eye. The artist, in turn, receives and interprets the support’s feedback, responding with additional layers, concatenating visual suggestions generated by a process of continuous influence, presenting their synthesis to the viewer without filters.
Nick Dawes, “Trace Elements”, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin
The post-World War II Color Field Painting movement, which used large layers of color to envelop the viewer in an all-encompassing visual and emotional experience, was of great importance to the artist. This approach, adapted to incorporate the depiction of process, in Nick Dawes’s practice transforms from an observation that aims for transcendence to a vision that observes the passage of time, interpreting abstract synthesis not as a gateway to escape reality but as a way to remain within it with an attitude of care, attention, and slow observation. The viewer is not simply drawn to the work’s colors but is immersed in a perceptual flow that narrates the process through color, a color that from surface becomes a true structure.
Nick Dawes, “Trace Elements”, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin
The artists Nick Dawes draws inspiration from are internalized and interpreted in a language that highlights time, which becomes a process through the application of color. Essential in this regard is the figure of Ed Clark, who, with broad layers of color created by painterly gestures applied with very broad brushstrokes, created with a suggestion that movement on the surface became the subject of the work, thus exposing the experiential nature of artistic practice. This characteristic is not found in the works of Mark Rothko, from whom he assimilates the idea of prolonged exposure. Although Rothko’s works are directed toward the exploration of a metaphysical stillness, Nick Dawes’s works similarly explore the spatial and emotional conditions that color can evoke. Finally, a key reference point was the work of Sam Gilliam, who transcended the two-dimensionality of the painted surface to create works that expanded into space. In this case, while creating structurally two-dimensional works, Nick Dawes finds space within the support, within the texture of the canvas itself, depicting, through transparency and the overlapping layers of paint, the optical depth afforded by the encounter of color with the support.
Nick Dawes, “Trace Elements”, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin
Nick Dawes’s works thus internalize the lessons of postwar artists without explicitly citing them, reflecting on the questions they left open. The use of oil paint, a medium that requires time and technical skill and precision, is used as a tool to create a synthesis that articulates the dialogue between the material of the support and the effects it creates. The artist is left with the task of acknowledging the synthesis created and adding, if necessary, another layer that will unpredictably create its chromatic effects, inhabiting the space of the surface. Care, attention, and respect for the timing of painting coexist in an exhibition that, despite displaying two-dimensional works, leads the viewer to experience a real space, inhabited by color.
Nick Dawes, “Trace Elements”, installation view, courtesy Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin
This, in turn, while not losing its visual and emotional power, does not highlight a world that escapes reality but instead aims to reveal time, the creative process. The visual effects of color, which occupy space within the texture of the canvas, speak to the intention of not wanting to hide randomness, the unpredictability of gesture, and life itself. By embracing the passage of time and observing chance take shape in his work, Nick Dawes’s works ultimately convey a profound sense of acceptance, open-mindedness, and optimism. In contrast to the disruptive attitude of a work conceived, created, and completed, the Trace Elements exhibition values time and listening, which, through color, invites visitors to immerse themselves in the unfiltered flow of life it displays.
Info:
Nick Dawes. Trace Elements
curated by Charles Moore
06/03/2026 – 18/04/2026
Kornfeld Galerie
Fasanenstraße 26, 10719 Berlino
kornfeldgalerie.com
Always connected to the art world, Samuel Tonelli attended the course in Art Education and Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and furthered his studies with the two-year master’s program in Education and Cultural Mediation of Artistic Heritage. After gaining experience mediating in various exhibitions and teaching art history at the art high school in Bologna, he developed a passion for art writing, which he sees as a powerful means of expression capable of opening up visions, broadening horizons and enriching the understanding of diverse perspectives on reality.
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