(b. 1971)

Viktor Kopp paints chocolate. As part of his exploration of the painterly space, a bar of chocolate has been a recurrent theme in several series of paintings since 2007. In extreme magnification, and with inquisitive scrutiny, the chocolate grid pattern is revealed. Each painting can also be seen as several smaller pictures.

The high plateaux of the bar approach the serene placidness of a monochrome, while the illusorily spaces in between contrast dramatically, like illuminated or shaded valleys. The paintings curve in and bulge out, in playful oscillation between realism and abstraction. As though they desire to be both chocolate and colour.

Earlier, Viktor Kopp let his initials appear in the chocolate. The capitals V and K were stamped in the paint as a joke, like a company logo. The paintings from 2010 have less of this humour and are characteristically more serious. Or even sad. They have a heavier and darker hue than before and bear more traces of the painterly process. Viktor Kopp’s chocolate surfaces fix our gaze. That they developed from an exploration of doors comes as no surprise. Nor does the obvious allusion to geometric modernism or pop art. The verticality of the paintings is self-referential. “Look at my representation of a chocolate door.” That is what the paintings say to the eye. About the colour and about events in the paint. About the realism of the subject. And its brush strokes. Before, the oil paint represented chocolate. Now, the chocolate really is painted colour.

www.viktorkopp.com

 

Viktor Kopp 
Born 1971 in Stockholm
Lives and works in Stockholm

Education:
1995–2000 Konsthögskolan i Malmö/Malmö Art Academy, Malmö
1999 Konstakademien i Helsingfors, Helsingfors/Helsinki [FI]
1991–1993 Domens konstskola, Göteborg/Gothenburg

Selected solo exhibitions:
2010 Bureau, New York [US]
2008 Landings Project Space, Vestfossen [NO]
2007 Galleri Magnus Åklundh, Malmö

Selected group exhibitions:
2009 Romantikens kraft – På spaning efter romantiken, Malmö Konsmuseum, Malmö
2008 No no no no no no no no no no no no there’s no limit, Galleri Signal, Malmö
2007 Jag vill kunna se vad det är, Lunds Konsthall, Lund

Selected bibliography:
Niklas Söderberg och Viktor Kopp Här, Publikation(), Malmö, 2008