Udo Nöger

Udo Nöger, who grew up in Enger, a town in Westphalia, Germany, creates luminous monochrome paintings that capture light, movement and energy expressed in highly minimalistic compositions. To produce works that appear to emanate light from within, Nöger employs an almost architectural approach. The paintings comprise three layers of canvas mounted on stretchers set at a distance from one another. The interior canvas, from which the artist cuts out simplified biomorphic forms, functions as the actual pictorial plane. Once the internal composition is complete, the outermost surface is treated with mineral oil to amplify translucency and visually bring the composition to the forefront.

The resulting works are subtle and atmospheric, both in the visual nature of the paintings and in how they interact with the surrounding space—the kind of light, the quality of light, even the time of day can impact the viewing experience. While the paintings are rendered in a restrained palette of soft whites and grays, depending on the light that illuminates the work, faint shades of blue, purple and green can emerge. Light travels into the closed atmosphere of the interior of these paintings, is changed and sent back into the world. His artworks evoke memories of sensory impressions, a metaphor for inner life and spiritual intelligence.

Udo’s earlier works, which were more raw in terms of form and composition, were often populated by mysterious, archaic figures and symbolically charged imagery inspired by his travels. On a trip to the South Pacific he discovered the ancient Rongorongo writings; a series of elemental glyphs consisting of animals, figures, and symbols used by the people of Easter Island centuries ago. Overtime he began to incorporate this ancient iconography into his works eventually creating his own pictorial language which gradually became more abstract. His current work is defined by his ability to reduce these elements to their simplest form. His goal is not to paint but rather to reflect light, Udo shared that it is in fact impossible to paint what the viewer is seeing on his canvas.

Udo Nöger has exhibited through the United States and Europe including Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Holland as well as Costa Rica and Canada; including at Siegerlandmuseum, Siegen, and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany; Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri; Museum of Art Honolulu, Hawaii; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Colorado. His work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Art Institute of Chicago; Bass Museum, Miami; and Haus der Kunst, Munich, among others.