JONAS BURGERT | ZEITLAICH 29 April 2017 – 29 July 2017 Berlin. ...The studies of individual subjects on the opposite wall are characters removed from the heavily populated scene facing them. Works like Dachte Sie (2016), where a serene countenance stares towards the viewer, have a quiet stillness that contrasts with the frenetic panorama facing them. The space between each work echoes a sense of isolation in the characters. Each seemingly possesses a highly individual inner world, but is inseparably connected to the mass. This idea is further expressed through the disconnection between the figures in the large landscape, who never make eye contact with one another. Writing in the catalogue for the artist’s recent museum show at MAMbo Bologna, the renowned curator David Anfam writes, ‘It is hard to think of another contemporary who manipulates colour with a legerdemain comparable to Burgert’. As with his choice of objects and costumed characters in his scenes, his vivid tones are neither attributable to a particular time or location. As Burgert says: ‘the concept of time is really open in my work. I try to create settings and events that cannot be easily assigned to particular times; that stand between times. In fact what I find interesting is the subtext of things and what exists in between.’ These ideas of time, other dimensions and emotional undercurrents are also reflected in the ruptured layers of Burgert’s environments. Often breached by characters and architectural features, these tears in the pictorial plane reveal various levels existing simultaneously. It is his dedication to the painterly exploration of colour, form and character, alongside more existential and sociological studies, that make Jonas Burgert such a unique presence amongst contemporary artists. Installation view, 2017, Courtesy the artist and Blain|Southern, Photo: Trevor Good.