Preview: Johannes Müller. As I remember

Johannes Müller’s paintings focus on people; sometimes as individual figures, sometimes as part of a larger crowd. The paintings in the exhibition depict familiar everyday situations: people lying on their towels at the outdoor swimming pool, moving through the water, waiting for the bus, or out and about. These are casual moments that, taken on their own, hold little drama. Johannes Müller is far more interested in the moods that unfold in such situations and what they reveal about human experience. Faces blur, contours dissolve, and movements merge into one another – the scenes remain recognizable yet elude clear perception.

The starting point for Johannes Müller’s works are usually his own memories, which he occasionally supports with photographs or other visual sources. He is particularly concerned with the question of how we remember our experiences and what impressions remain of them. Memories are rarely complete. Individual details stand out clearly, while others fade, overlap, or remain vague. His paintings, too, allow for such gaps. Blurring and visual distortions – inspired, among other things, by digital media – cause figures and spaces to merge into one another or allow different moments to become visible simultaneously. The paintings thus preserve something of the transience of a memory while at the same time leaving room for the viewer’s own associations, which complement what is depicted.

Johannes Müller contrasts the fleeting nature of these works with the physical presence of the painting itself. In some places, his paint is applied thickly and in a modeling manner, while other areas remain thin, blurred, or merely hinted at. Particularly in the human figures, the paint often condenses into impasto-like, almost sculptural layers. In this way, skin and body take on an immediate physical materiality, even as their outlines blur or dissolve into their surroundings. Johannes Müller develops his color palette based on the mood of each subject. Vivid contrasts, fluid transitions, and varied textures lend these familiar scenes an unusual intensity.

In Johannes Müller’s paintings, ordinary everyday situations coalesce into images in which memory and the present merge. What remains of a moment can never be fully captured. It is precisely in this indeterminacy that the scenes develop a painterly reality that encourages the viewer to complete them in their own imagination.