Jiri Georg Dokoupil

The new works of the versatile artistic practice of the acclaimed artist

Published on the occasion of the exhibition in Venice, Venetian Bubbles inaugurates a new phase of the versatile and experimental artistic practice of the globally acclaimed artist Jiri Georg Dokoupil: the evolution of the artist's renowned Soap Bubble Paintings into three-dimensional forms.

Accompanied by an essay by Christian Dominguez and an introduction by Reiner Opoku, the curator of the exhibition, the catalogue presents Dokoupil's large-scale sculptural works in glass, several large-scale paintings, and a series of works on paper. These new works reflect the artist's liberated exploration of materials and techniques, revealing new approaches to painting and glassmaking with freedom, play and humour, while capturing the ephemerality of existence.

A key figure in the Neue Wilde movement in Germany in the 1980s and known for his unconventional experimentations in the global art scene, Georg Dokoupil has never been confined to a specific genre or style.

Instead, he transcends traditional practices, using unusual materials such as whip marks, candle soot, or fruit, and soap bubbles, demonstrating a multiplicity of approaches to painting and a body of work that defies categorisation. Since the late 1970s, the artist has been exploring the subtleties of his technique, mixing soap-lye with pigments, and blowing bubbles onto a canvas coated with paint, guiding their burst to leave intricate organic imprints. These unpredictable patterns evoke a sense of spontaneity that challenges the control of the artist and the notion of permanence often found in the painting practice.

Dokoupil simultaneously reflects on deeper themes of the human condition - the breath used to conceive the bubble evokes the fugacity of existence, while the traces marked on the canvas reveal traces of its ephemerality.