THOMAS A. HOLLBACH

His works show spherical, ethereal faces – airy, fleeting portraits in which the mouth, nose or eyes briefly manifest themselves in a delicate haze of colour, only to disintegrate again in the next moment. Only we are among the lucky ones who seem to have caught the very second in which they were revealed..

Cupid and Psyche themselves seem to unite here, for Hollbach’s depictions enchant: just as he also intends to seduce and befuddle us, because he loves the game of illusion – he masterfully conjures up sensory organs from a swamp of liquid-muddy worlds of colour only to beguile us with the realism of their depiction. We, on the other hand, play along because we love the pleasure of beauty and the perfection of painting and thus often see more than Hollbach was prepared to show us.