Nick Dawes – Trace Elements
With Trace Elements, KORNFELD Gallery presents a solo exhibition by London-based artist Nick Dawes (b. 1969, Johannesburg), bringing together new works from his current phase of practice. Curated by Charles Moore, the exhibition is dedicated to a painterly approach that consciously resists the visual acceleration of the present, placing time, materiality, and attention at its core.
Nick Dawes’ works are created by pouring thin layers of paint onto untreated canvas. Transparency, layering, and a visibly inscribed temporal dimension shape the surfaces of the paintings. Color appears not as a decorative element, but as a structuring principle. The painterly process remains openly legible, lending the works a quiet yet intense presence.
Conceptually, Dawes’ work enters into a contemporary dialogue with key positions of postwar abstract painting such as Ed Clark, Mark Rothko, and Sam Gilliam, without citing them directly. His painting carries forward their inquiries into color, space, and materiality with consistency and clarity, asserting the continued relevance of painting as a site of concentrated perception and temporal experience.
The artist Nick Dawes and curator Charles Moore will be present at the opening.
With Trace Elements, KORNFELD Gallery presents a solo exhibition by London-based artist Nick Dawes (b. 1969, Johannesburg), bringing together new works from his current phase of practice. Curated by Charles Moore, the exhibition is dedicated to a painterly approach that consciously resists the visual acceleration of the present, placing time, materiality, and attention at its core.
Nick Dawes’ works are created by pouring thin layers of paint onto untreated canvas. Transparency, layering, and a visibly inscribed temporal dimension shape the surfaces of the paintings. Color appears not as a decorative element, but as a structuring principle. The painterly process remains openly legible, lending the works a quiet yet intense presence.
Conceptually, Dawes’ work enters into a contemporary dialogue with key positions of postwar abstract painting such as Ed Clark, Mark Rothko, and Sam Gilliam, without citing them directly. His painting carries forward their inquiries into color, space, and materiality with consistency and clarity, asserting the continued relevance of painting as a site of concentrated perception and temporal experience.
Internationally, Nick Dawes’ work is held in public and private collections, including the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk (USA). His paintings have been shown in institutional and gallery contexts in London and Southampton, as well as in solo exhibitions in New York (Gallery, New York) and New Orleans (Gallery, New Orleans). In addition, Dawes is regularly presented at major international art fairs, including EXPO CHICAGO, Untitled Art (Miami Beach), Art021 (Shanghai), and the KIAF Art Fair (Seoul).
