Tomas Leth
Ekstatisk pollen

January 27 – March 10, 2023

The paintings of the Danish artist Tomas Leth tell stories that refuse polarizing moral values but confront the world with transcendental logic about human existence instead. Over months, he adds many layers of different motifs on paper until he finally builds up a connection to an image and elaborates it further, strongly influenced by the impressionist painting style. Using oil pastels, which layers slightly blow into each other, allows more loose and softer edges, and creates Tomas Leth’s unique colour mixing innovation. Dense paint in earthy hues shows a nature without people; places that are not dominated by the Anthropocene, but rather by the aesthetics of the untouched or even the post-human. The multi-layered paintings stand for a dichotomy that characterizes the artist’s work; the dichotomy between a pleasant aesthetic experience and the immanent threat of these images: The paradisiacal gardens we see are not to be trusted, since in their lush diversity they are already prophesying the end of humanity.

Tomas Leth’s thoughts on life are multi-layered and figuratively down-to-earth like his paintings themselves. These works feel like something experienced over a very long period in contrast to a photographic snapshot we produce in passing. It seems as if these landscapes had survived all earthly upheavals and as if they remained in their timelessness until eternity. They appear untouchable as if they existed in a world that can only be entered by non-human beings.

Even the Danish title of the show “Ekstatisk pollen“ fills the room with secrets instead of revealing anything right away. The pollen flight corresponds to the gentle reproduction of plants, which are often carried from flower to flower with the help of insects. Ecstatically, the delicate pollen dances in the air, looking for the fruit that it will fertilize. But after a new beginning and a life full of ecstasy, this fruit will also perish in order to give birth to new life from its mortal remains. In nature, these ever-renewing cycles seem harmless, whereas humans try to stop these processes; since death is an unwelcome guest in every human life. Perhaps behind these enchanted flowers and landscapes lies the secret of how we as humans can welcome this cycle of life and accept our death to bring new life.

Text: Teresa Retzer