Niclas Castello on Clubhouse

Bio

A R T I S T

In the comprehensive oeuvre of Niclas Castello, painting represents a significant element of his multimedia work. The 2016 work group Cube Paintings is based on a profound, processual way of working which is exemplary for the artist’s practice. Working on the floor, both the front and backside of the canvases are painted on by Castello, before they are mounted on a wooden frame. These large-format, finished paintings are then broken and placed within plexiglass cubes. The canvases of the Cube Paintings are no isolated objects but form a unit with the surrounding plexiglass covers. The purposely uncontrollable deconstruction of his works combines with the clear, sharp-edged structure of the synthetic material of the cubes and creates a work of art that questions the boundaries of sculpture and painting.
The interdependence of the canvas broken by the artist's hand and the acrylic glass cube is a realization of the multisensory practice of Niclas Castello, which topples fixed perspectives. The media of painting and sculpture combine as a matter of course with the practice of the artist, resulting in a redefinition of the standard vocabulary of art history. Castello is not seeking to explore new boundaries between sculpture and painting, he rather wants to point out their boundlessness. In the symbiosis of plastic and canvas the sculpture escapes its own three-dimensionality and the painting its two- dimensionality. Whether integrated in a building, placed in nature, fixed to the wall, or standing in the room – the transparent material of the plexiglass always connects with the environment. The canvas, on the other hand, represents, through the display of the process, pure energy and movement. The overall image, fragmented through the bending of the canvas triggered by the artistic process, seems to want to break out.
In connection with Castello's Cube Paintings, the destruction of his works of art is often mentioned. But breaking something does not always inevitably imply destruction. Sometimes the mere act of demolition is the process that can reveal a true purpose. Diametrically opposed to the traditional definitions of painting and sculpture, Castello's Cube Paintings are exemplary for his exploration and linking of different practices and techniques. Castello reinvents what it means to work as an artist, and consciously challenges the viewers to: Always think outside the plexiglass box!