Nick Dawes' 'Trace Elements' Exhibition at Kornfeld Galerie Explores Color, Time, and Process

Nick Dawes presents 'Trace Elements' at Kornfeld Galerie in Berlin, curated by Charles Moore, from March 6 to April 18, 2026. The exhibition features works that engage with unpredictability, time's passage, and irreversible events through color. Dawes employs a slow, deliberate process of layering diluted oil paint on untreated canvas, where the raw fabric absorbs pigment to create halos and forms. This method emphasizes a continuous negotiation between the artist's gesture and the material's response, resulting in visual structures emerging from their interaction. Influenced by postwar Color Field Painting, Dawes reinterprets this tradition by focusing on process rather than transcendence, drawing inspiration from artists like Ed Clark, Mark Rothko, and Sam Gilliam. His practice integrates care, attention, and respect for painting's temporal aspects, using oil paint's technical demands to highlight dialogue between support and effect. The works invite viewers into a perceptual flow where color becomes structural, exploring spatial and emotional conditions without escaping reality. Located at Fasanenstraße 26 in Berlin, the exhibition underscores acceptance, mental openness, and optimism through its embrace of chance and time.