Dirk Skreber

Deborah, Stephanie, and I, (2010) Acrylic, enamel, polyurethane, spray paint and foam tape on panel, 79 x 118 1/2 in.

To be confirmed (2010), Acrylic, enamel, polyurethane, spray paint and foam tape on panel 96 x 86 in.

Laura and Kaylee (2010), Acrylic, enamel, polyurethane, spray paint and foam tape on panel 63 x 86 1/2 in.

Katee II (2010), Acrylic, enamel, polyurethane, spray paint and foam tape on panel 96 x 86 in.

Katee I (2010), Acrylic, enamel, polyurethane, spray paint and foam tape on panel 96 x 86 in.

Eva (2010),Acrylic, enamel, polyurethane, spray paint and foam tape on panel 96 x 86 in.

Untitled (Silver Ghost) (2010), Mixed media, Tesa Moll tape on wood panel 87.6 x 144 in.

About the artist

Dirk Skreber’s new paintings radiate with a graphic intensity and a high-voltage pop color palette. By layering strip after strip of foam tape atop panels rolled with varnish, polyurethane, watercolor, enamel, spray paint, fluorescent paint and primer – but absent of oil or any conventional brushwork – Skreber creates images of slightly obscured and brooding (mostly female) models, set against highly refined ornamental surfaces. These “pluck” paintings as they are called – due to the intricate removal of foam tape by careful burning or picking – suggest an uneasy exchange between the figure and their surrounding pictorial space. Models’ faces and bodies only come to the fore when Skreber picks or burns away the foam tape to varying levels of thickness, revealing his subject purely through shadow and line – not with paint. This “reveal” allows his subjects to emerge from behind the picture’s surface rather than on top of it, filling each portrait with a mysterious sense of psychological detachment (Blum&Poe).

Dirk Skreber at Blum & Poe Gallery