CHRISTIAN ACHENBACH
PHENOMETRY

KÖNIG GALERIE
7 NOVEMBER – 21 DECEMBER 2024

OPENING
6 NOVEMBER 2024 | 6 – 8 PM

KÖNIG GALERIE is pleased to present PHENOMETRY, a solo exhibition by Christian Achenbach in the Chapel of St. Agnes. Marking Achenbach's debut with the gallery, it features paintings and sculptures at the intersection of shape, perception, and time. In biology, phenometry refers to the measurement of plant growth. Achenbach borrows the term from its scientific use, as a metaphor for the evolution and perception of the natural world.

In his studio, Achenbach begins with a soft acrylic wash that becomes a diffuse background, still apparent in certain elements of the composition. Following this, the silhouettes are outlined with pastel before being brought to life with multiple layers of oil paint, resulting in a vibrant surface. The visible layering is an intentional aspect of the creative process – one that makes the duration, and our understanding of it, tangible. The sculptures appear to mirror the topographical, almost geological overlapping of the painted landscapes. Composed of dynamic forms made of glass or aluminum (in the garden), they seem to be constantly changing, constructing themselves as we observe them. 

Both familiar and alien, Achenbach's sceneries are suspended in a state of flux – in a realm where time and space dissolve into one another: a prehistoric earth, an uncertain future, or some alternate present. The dense compositions of hills, trees, and waterfalls saturate the viewer's gaze through radiant colors. Like musical notes, they build a visual score through echoes, repetitions, and variations. As the panorama morphs and evolves in various shapes, the shifting forms remind us of the fragility of ecosystems and the need for awareness.

PHENOMETRY functions as an exploration of time and scale. The wall painting echoes the patterns in the foreground of the canvases, translating into an immersive scope that carries the visitors into the landscape. It evokes Jorge Luis Borges’s vision of a map so detailed that it merges entirely with the territory it represents, questioning the porosity amid signifier and signified and urging to reconsider the framework of perception. Christian Achenbach invites us not only to observe but to engage – to lose ourselves in the process of discovery, in a balancing act between Borges’s prose and Yoko Ono’s 1964 prompt: "Draw a map to get lost."