While walking along the wide and dignified pavements of Berlin’s Fasanenstraße, the city’s relentless pace can sometimes exhaust the mind. In an era where everything is consumed at digital speed and images flash and fade in seconds, pausing to take a deep breath is no longer a luxury—it is a necessity. KORNFELD Gallery responds to this need with the exhibition “Trace Elements” by London-based artist Nick Dawes. The atmosphere on this floor stands in calm, patient contrast to the visual noise outside. Born in Johannesburg, the artist pours paint onto the canvas almost like a timekeeper, inviting us to question once again the way we see. Curated by Charles Moore, this selection is not merely a new series of paintings; it is a quiet alliance between paint, fabric, and time. Why should you visit this exhibition? Because Dawes reminds us that an image is not merely “what is seen”—it is the sum of accumulated hours, transparency, and attention within it. Come, let us witness together in this peaceful corner of the building how painting becomes a fortress of resistance against the speed of modern life.
Transparent Layers and the Materiality of Time
Nick Dawes’s working practice relies on the delicate balance of thin layers of paint poured onto raw canvas. The resulting works elevate paint from a decorative embellishment to the fundamental structural principle of the painting. These transparent colour transitions, fully integrated with the texture of the canvas, offer an honest language that openly reveals how the painting was made.
The intense sense of time felt on the surface of the works reflects Dawes’s unhurried approach. Each pour prepares the ground for the next, creating a layered archaeology on the canvas. This process ensures that every movement from the artist’s hand remains as a permanent trace. When you look closely at the paintings, you can follow the paint’s journey between the fibres of the fabric—its pauses and concentrations—just as you would trace the marks left in a riverbed.
A Modern Dialogue: Traces from Rothko to Gilliam
Although Dawes’s production follows a completely personal rhythm, it engages in a quiet and profound dialogue with giants of art history. He takes up the questions posed by post-war abstract painting pioneers such as Ed Clark, Mark Rothko, and Sam Gilliam concerning colour, space, and materiality. Yet this is not imitation; Dawes re-asks these questions from within the visual chaos of the 21st century.
While echoes of Rothko’s depth or Gilliam’s relationship with the physical nature of the canvas can be felt in Dawes’s works, he blends these influences with today’s intensified need for perception. Here, painting ceases to be merely an object to be looked at and becomes a space of experience in which time is spent. The creative vapour rising from the boiler room transforms on this floor into a transparent stillness, compelling the viewer not just to look, but to truly “be present.”
Exhibition Details:
Artist: Nick Dawes
Exhibition Title: Trace Elements
Venue: KORNFELD Gallery, Berlin
Dates: 6 March – 18 April 2026
