“Painting is not about me as a person. Rather, I become a human component in a process of things. An exchange between the outside world and the resulting flood of information, an emotional filter in the midst of an interactive meditation, somewhere between world, hand, eye, and image” —Jan Pleitner

Looking at Jan Pleitner’s paintings is like a borderline psychedelic experience. Everything slides and undulates, throws itself off balance, and catches itself again. The artist’s vibrant colour palette includes the entire temperature spectrum, while his physical approach to the medium includes overpainting, cutouts and scrapings, allowing new colour fields and archaic patterns to emerge. Pleitner’s works can be understood as sensual-emotional experiences that pose questions about the rhythm of life, recurring biological structures, and cosmic unity.

For Kunsthalle Emden, Jan Pleitner has a monumental new painting in the atrium – the largest work ever presented at the Kunsthalle to date. A large tent roof designed by the artist can also be found on the lawn in front of the entrance. Lying on the grass beneath it and gazing into the swirls of colour feels like being immersed in psychedelic worlds.

Jan Pleitner (*1984 in Oldenburg) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Jörg Immendorff and was later a Master's student of Tal R. His works successfully blend into the art historical tradition of abstraction and refer to the artistic achievements of Orphism and Vorticism, as well as the post-war positions of the CoBrA group. Jan Pleitner lives and works in East Frisia.