Regine Kolle — Tropical Wool — Olivier Robert Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: October 24 → November 23, 2013

Regine Kolles’ ten new paintings are not on friendly terms with one another. The fault lies neither with the Axolotl, a small lovable amphibian staring back with big curious eyes, its legs glued to the canvas, nor the gazing Blue Ink Elephant.

All animals in the exhibition appear at their best. They inhabit the canvas with honest and friendly grace. While against that, the depicted women and men look blunt. Their composure is bad. They are hardly able to remain within the edges of the paintings. Gawky and droopy they collapse, melting away just like their too liquid outlines. Just like that girl nibbling off her fingernails and imitating a green plant on her balcony finally strikes roots — Nibbling off the day. And just like that guy swimming around a pool in the middle of a parking lot of an unsightly shopping centre: here, the painting obviously decided to drown the character. Only his eyes and forehead remain in the picture. Soon he will disappear — To swim around the parking lot.

Thus the human beings abandon that privileged stage representing their image and magnificence being the genre of the portrait. They just look like shrivelled molluscs, turning away, indifferent to the others, idle, passive, only good enough to await food — Waiting for food. You would almost think they were wallpaper. Whereas the animals show pretty elegance, including that larval creature being the axolotl.