Healing Beauty
Mike Dargas (GER)
Duration of Exhibition: 1 – 24 May, 2017
Address: WHITECONCEPTS Gallery . Auguststrasse 35 . 10119 Berlin
Opening hours: Mon – Fri, 11 AM – 5 PM and by appointment
Opening in presence of the artist: Monday, 1 May 2017, 7 PM
WHITECONCEPTS gallery is delighted to present the first solo show of German artist Mike Dargas in Berlin.
The young painter is renowned for his masterly painted, realistic works. He dedicates himself to oil painting and creates spectacular large-scale portraits outstanding with their detailed illustration.
Can art actually make a difference in the lives of the people who look at it? German artist Mike Dargas believes in it.
Looking at his fascinating paintings of some of the most beautiful women it is easily understandable how concepts of beauty have changed over time imposed by society.
Inspired by artists such as Dalí, Caravaggio and H.R. Giger, Mike Dargas studied various techniques and since his youth developed a passion for realism, which he refined over and over.
The artist analyses his subjects with such intensity, that each portrait gives witness of increasing intimate closeness. The perfection of his technique serves his goal to understand the nature of a human being and to question our own emotional perception.
The works of Mike Dargas elude a clear temporal distinction. Even if the representations can stand as indications of a contemporary Western zeitgeist, the images lose their temporal determinability through their static transience and acquire an essence of infinity. The artist plays with the effect on the observer right from the beginning. Although the works appear to be photographs from a distance, on closer observation the large scale of the portrait establishes the macroscopically precise observation of the artist and his masterly intercourse with color shading and color shift rich with nuances, that sharpen the view of the picturesque.
Mike Dargas (* 1983 in Cologne/GER) started making paintings with oil paint from a very young age, and exhibited his talent publicly, like drawing old masters paintings with pastel and chalk on the pavement in front of the Cologne cathedral. Shortly after he got accepted in an art school, from which he graduated after a year and a half, the only child in a class of adults. There, he learnt different techniques, and received a training that led him to master three dimensional arts, like wooden sculptures. In his early twenties he built himself a solid reputation in the tattoo scene and won numerous prizes and awards. Since a few years he has been dedicating himself to painting.
His most popular works are part of numerous collections around the world. They were exhibited in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, and in the USA.
