B orn in 1965 in Switzerland, the painter has seen his international career ourish during the past several years. Why is Denzler recognized by both art institutions and private collectors as a major artist of today?
There are several reasons. The first and the most obvious is that a Denzler canvas is immediately recognizable; from the start, the ar - tist found a singular artistic language, a visual signature, a style and a universe that are entirely his own. We know instantly and without hesitation that we are looking at one of his artworks.
Another reason is the fertile relationship that Denzler nou - rishes between image and substance. For him, there is a constant dialogue and mutual enrichment from these two poles constituting his painting. The painting’s meanings or its experience never end with the image or with what is de - picted; similarly, the act of painting as understanding the canvas is not reduced to a pure experience of the substan- ce. And so the gaze wavers between pure abstraction and evocative portrayal. The choice of voluntarily neutral and muted tones further reinforces this experience.
With Denzler, there is also a reflection and a definition of the pictorial medium against the yardstick of new technologies and photography. Recall that Denzler combines a graphic desi - gner’s and photographer’s experience with that of the pain- ter. His culture of the image is not limited to iconographic or historical knowledge, but extends to concrete experiences of various modes of producing the visible. This is perceptible in the framing, the composition of paintings, the lighting and the drama – the artist makes use of his own photographs taken with a Leica –, but also in a more subtle manner, in his way of imaging the painting’s status in a world saturated with digital screens.
The artist’s “visual logic” allows us to experiment with a sort of disruption of the image, as if there were interferen- ce, as if the visual signals were scrambled. The presence of the painting is both manifest and incontestable, but the subject itself seems to resorb or absorb in the subject that it reveals. Thus, it is a paradoxical experience of vision that Denzler presents to us: we see very clearly that it is blurred and imprecise. It is a little like the moment frozen by the pause button on an old VHS player. Striations in the image, furrows in the substance...
This leads us to mention by way of conclusion a final as- pect of Denzler’s work: the moment when the artist remo- ves material from the canvas, streaking the image using a palette knife. In the domain of sculpture, it is common to compare two methods: subtractive and additive. The first consists of cutting away in order to “rediscover” a form buried within, such as Michelangelo discovering his gure within a block of marble. The second describes the method illustrated by Giacometti, in which the sculptor adds small quantities of wax that mass to- gether piece by piece on a metal armature (a soul) revea- ling the contours of a silhouette. It is interesting to note here that these two techniques are one and the same for Denzler and that the addition of material always has as a corollary its elimination, as if he swept the image with his hand or gaze. Add or subtract: these two apparently contradictory acts, far from cancelling each other out, allow the artist’s vision to manifest itself.
David Rosenberg
Art director
Opera Gallery Group

Opening: 22 June 2017 from 6.30 pm to 10.00 pm
In the presence of the artist
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