Rafael Gerlach: Key Stimulus

Envisioning his technical instrument as subordinate to the idea, content and concept of the painting (as always), Rafael Gerlach (aka SatOne) presents Key Stimulus at the Galerie Chenus Longhi. Through some thirty works, he stresses the ambiguity between the clarity and the brutality of the gesture - conveyed by his distinctive, circuit brush strokes - that is harnessed to achieve the desired kinaesthetic effect. A visual stimulus which, through the medium of the abstract image, leads the spectator to project ideas, dreams and personal feelings without knowing about the artist's initial approach. Unlike advertising, which he believes creates “anxieties and needs”, he thus whets the audience's appetite for freedom of imagination and introspection. “I express a feeling or a situation by choosing the painting as a language, as I can't find words for it. I therefore create partially or totally coded images that only the spectator can decipher” he explains. Similar to instrumental music in its experiential rhythm, Key Stimulus offers an obvious source of inspiration that emerges through the deconstruction and structuration of the creative space. By offering a new expression of chromatic power, Rafael Gerlach awakens the eternal polymorphism of the abstract surface, summons the imaginary and reality in turn, and submits the existence of the pictorial material to public opinion.