We are told it is a mistake to think that the painter begins with a white surface. There is no empty canvas to be filled with life, for there is too much life already, too much clutter, too much stuff. “The painter has many things in his head, or around him, or in his studio.” And everything the painter has in his head is there on the canvas before him, before he begins his work. So many images! Thus before he begins, the painter has to empty the canvas, to remove what is there already. And to this argument I want to say, hmm. Perhaps. Or rather not.
Perhaps this is true of the painter, who is sure of himself and his place in the world, which is organised around him. But there are others who paint, better defined through a counter-subjectivity, which is non-unitary, not fixed. This subjectivity is not set against the clutter of life, but at home within it. For VO 2026, GiG Munich would like to introduce three painters, Laura Hinrichsmeyer, Luisa Kasalicky and Andrea Zabric.