Focus on: Paco König Event

Kandlhofer Focus is a new section to the gallery program providing a platform for different artistic positions. The section will run concurrently with the gallery´s main exhibition program in the project room and focus on bringing a diverse range of artistic aesthetics and voices to the gallery to form a broader cultural and aesthetic dialogue.

Paco Koenig (b.1990) lives and works in Berlin. Koenig received his MA in Architecture from the University of Arts, Berlin.

Originally trained as an architect, Paco Koenig’s path flowed through architecture and furniture design before resting on painting. Koenig states that his move to painting was triggered by finding a sketch that he had created and felt the impulse to convert into a larger scale work. Finding greater creative control in the medium where he could explore the aspects of architecture and design that interested him in a more autonomous manner.

Koenig’s practice involves scraping marks on aluminum surfaces which are then treated with oil colour. Within this practice there are signicant elements of contradiction. For instance, once the mark on the aluminum is made it is impossible to erase which invariably suggest a very conscious and considered technique. However, at the same time the marks are only revealed upon the application of the oil, revealing the forms that lie beneath, creating a consciously unconscious process.

The process of mark making is something that particularly interests Koenig, “I’m just fascinated by the fact that humans have that inner instinct to make a mark on a surface, to be remembered in a way. I think this desire goes back to the cave paintings in the south of France. Those first marks are like a template for everything that comes after, including the screens that we are staring into”, Koenig states.

Solo exhibitions include: Report Abuse at Picknick Berlin, 2018; Code Art Fair Copenhagen, with Picknick Berlin, 2018. Group shows Koenig has participated in include: Opening Spoiler at Spoiler Berlin, 2019; Load Management at Spoiler Berlin, 2020. Koenig also participated in the Navel, LA artist residency.