Paul Schwer's UNGEPLANT. GEPLANT is now on view at Galerie Wolfgang Jahn, Munich, Germany.
The title of the exhibition refers to the special creation process of the sculptures and reflects the challenges with which Paul Schwer is confronted in the implementation of his artistic concepts.
Inspired by a stay in Shanghai in 2006, Paul Schwer has since used Plexiglas and Pet-G as the main material for his sculptures and installations. First, the artist paints or prints the material. These panels are then heated in an industrial oven and folded into the desired shape. This molding process usually happens very quickly. The material can only be processed when it has reached a certain temperature. If the material is too hot, it will melt. If it's too cold, it breaks. The artist only has a few seconds to bring the panels into the desired shape. Due to the speed of the molding process, the end result is sometimes unpredictable despite an artistic plan. The lightness of the sculptures and their organic forms give the viewer the impression that they were created by chance.
The transparency of the plexiglass motivated Paul Schwer to deal more intensively with the subject of light. For some time now, the artist has been integrating light tubes into his sculptures or playing with other light-reflecting materials. He recently manifested this development with a large installation (title: "The Warden"), which was set up on the Steintorbrücke as part of the Braunschweig 2020 Light Parcours. This work also shows the importance of the place of origin for the artist. His installations are often set up in unusual locations, such as his work “Sonnendeck” (2019), which was created on the roof of the “Friends” hotel in Düsseldorf and was curated by curator Wilko Austermann.
In 2018, a catalog by the artist was published to accompany two extensive solo exhibitions at the Museum Goch and the Museum Ratingen. Another exhibition by Paul Schwer will open in the Neue Galerie Gladbeck in November 2020.