Jan Zöller's Sparkler Paintings and Architectural Interventions at Galería Ehrhardt Flórez

Jan Zöller's exhibition 'The Remaining Smell of the Wunderkerze' at Galería Ehrhardt Flórez in Madrid features seven large canvases and works on paper centered on sparklers (Wunderkerze) as a motif for shared celebration and sensory memory. The show includes architectural interventions: an industrial metal railing from Karlsruhe's off-space Zentrale holds lit candles, and DIY benches made from reused materials invite contemplation. Paintings range from nocturnal landscapes with crisscrossing sparklers to turbulent compositions with humanoid birds echoing Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude Descending a Staircase'. Zöller's geometric elements—circles, cubes, squares—replace earlier narrative motifs like bird heads, now reduced to triangular beaks. The railing, originally from a street, disrupts the gallery flow, while furniture alters spatial logic, advocating for public encounter and community. The exhibition revives a specific moment where senses awaken memory, with sparklers depicted lit or smoldering across vast surfaces. Zöller's painting oscillates between modern intoxication and melancholic landscape, rooted in pictorial origins as projection. The show runs at Galería Ehrhardt Flórez in Madrid.