Janus Hochgesand

European Cultural Centre Italy

Personal Structures

8th contemporary art biennial

09. Mai – 22. November 2026

Palazzo Mora_Strada Nuova 3659_30121 Venice_Italy

At the invitation of the ECC (European Cultural Centre Italy) to participate in the 8th edition of Personal Structures 2026 in Venice, we asked Janus Hochgesand to design a contribution for the exhibition.

Janus Hochgesand refers to his abstract paintings as High Intensity Paintings where surface, structures, and textures take center stage. The former sculptor, who studied under Tobias Rehberger, considers color as a material in a tactile sense. In his studio, which serves as a laboratory for painting, one won’t find brushes or easels. Instead, Hochgesand applies pigment and oil to the canvas through direct and dynamic movements, often using his footwear as artistic tools.

It is not the gesture itself that is decisive, nor the painter’s style, nor even the materiality of the paint. Rather, the essence of the picture reveals itself as both reality and vision. The entity manifests itself as a confrontation between the factual nature of the picture itself and the associative, yet emotional sublimation of the work as a force of impact.

His often dynamic, sometimes poetic and then again elegiac paintings focus on a self-evidentness rooted in the here and now, which at the same time testifies to great inner depth and a close affinity with everyday things and nature.

For Personal Structures Hochgesand has developed a concept that transcends the traditional picture format. In a large-scale work, he combines his charcteristic High Intensity Paintings with a specially developed Wall Painting. The work extends into the space and enters into a dynamic interaction with the architecture.

Weitere Ausstellungen und Beteiligungen von Janus Hochgesand