Jonah Gebka

The works on canvas summarized under the title 'To-do' show male figures performing various actions in a domestic environment. Since 2017, I have been collecting my personal to-do lists and recording the noted tasks and duties in drawings. The current paintings in the ongoing series draw on this material. The large-format canvases contrast with the simplicity of the original text specifications. This difference is reinforced by the scale of the motifs and the intensity of the colours.

The interiors in 'Moody Layouts' are filled with figures, objects and patterns. When not bathed in warm lamplight, the scenes glow in the light of various screens. Patterned pyjamas allow the bodies of the male protagonists to merge with each other and with the surrounding sofa cushions. The watercolours are small and densely painted, requiring a close-up viewing. By carefully tearing the paper, I have exposed the soft fibres at its edges in order to emphasize the work‘s materiality.

'Message Board' was designed for a window display at the Lost Weekend Café in Munich. I was inspired by the bulletin boards of the nearby university buildings. The installation consists of a large-format wallpaper print on which 16 works on paper are mounted. By using 3D rendering programs, the print was designed to imitate and illusionistically extend the light situation in the shop window and the works on paper presented. This visual effect aims to blur the distinction between printed and tangible objects. Real and printed shadows overlap, motifs repeatedly appear.

The pocket sized booklet combines drawings and texts produced in the months leading up to the exhibition 'Blue Light' at Boutwell Schabrowsky in Munich. 'Browser' mines unused scribbles for future paintings, repurposed quotes, and notes from several sketchbooks to reflect on the shortcomings of language as well as the many hats images wear. Recurring characters are a missing cat, an open book, and question marks. The booklet's cover is embossed and the pages are printed on a risograph machine by Herr & Frau Rio in Munich; it measures 9.5 × 14.5 cm. Artist Giulia Zabarella helped compile the texts, while the design concept was developed in collaboration with Manuel Lorenz. The production of 'Browser' was supported by the Stiftung Kunstfonds.

'Night Views' shows painted reproductions of wallpaper images from Apple's macOS operating system. The nocturnal scenes in which I have embedded these iconic landscapes appear particularly enlarged due to their strong cropping. What happens in front of the screen - anonymous backs of heads and profiles of faces, bent elbows in checked shirts and pointing hands - appears flat like a silhouette thanks to the use of matt colors. In contrast, the use of watery colors and overlapping layers enhances the depth of the landscapes depicted.

Each image in the 'A—Z' series shows a book being taken off a shelf or put back in by a hand or a pair of hands. The bookcovers are predominantly monochrome. They show neither text nor images. The position and gesture of the hand differs from image to image. The aspect ratios and dimensions of the canvases relate to the books depicted, which means that the paintings in the series slightly differ from one another not only in their motif, but also in their format.

The two-part publication 'Image Runner' was published by Hammann von Mier Verlag to accompany the eponymous presentation in the Galerie der Künstler:innen in 2020. The image part (open thread binding, 152 pages) includes 92 sheets taken from a larger body of work and created between 2017 and 2020. The accompanying brochure (stapled, 16 pages) contains the text 'Man in office making copies using photocopier' by curator Juliane Bischoff and a list with details about the production of each sheet. Both parts are printed in 4/4c offset and measure 24 × 32 cm each. The text part was designed by artist and graphic designer Jan Erbelding. The production of the publication was supported by the LfA Förderbank and the Free State of Bavaria.

The images in 'Grid Comforts' each show a bird's eye view of a figure and a laptop, which I place on the grid of a patterned bedspread. The screens are blank or show an aerial view of the Californian island of Catalina, a pre-installed background image of the Apple operating system macOs. While the protagonist remains the same, both the lighting mood and the pattern of the bedspread change from picture to picture. This results in a number of different versions of the same motif.

The series 'Key Operators' focuses on the examination of immaterial work and the material handling of paper, which serves as a carrier of information, ideas and modes of representation. The watercolours and prints are based on stock images, generic material from image databases produced and used for illustrative purposes in advertising and the press. They depict people, primarily men, in office situations. By handling paper, computers and printers, they suggest cognitive but repetitive work. The devices are part of the image as watercolour depictions of the concrete technical machines as well as the result of their use. The pictorial space is additionally expanded by to scale prints of hands and their silhouettes, implying work taking place in the background. Certain works consist of watercolour on paper, others have additional inkjet-printed sections.

'How To' combines various found assembly instructions and my own drawings to create a unique publication. It focuses on the stripped-down beauty of functional drawings and their ability to establish a direct connection with the viewer. The informational aesthetics are progressively called into question by their repetition, distortion and exaggerated juxtapositions. The drawings in the publication have an instructional quality, yet they remain a call to action without a clear referent. The laserprinted booklet is presented in a sober brochure box attached to the wall and is free to take away for exhibition visitors. It measures 15 × 21 cm.

The series 'Alternatives' depicts a person with rake in four similar paintings. All four motifs relate to four nearly identical photographs previously created for this purpose. The painterly translation of the motifs results in an added layer of difference between the images.

The work 'Backgrounds' consists of 27 manual reproductions based on a found advertising photograph. The advertised object is omitted in favour of the background. Over 27 days, 27 variations of the same motif were created in the studio through the repeated attempt to establish a relationship of similarity between the photographic template and the painted image. The imprecision of the painterly process results in a multitude of images that are similar but never exactly alike.

Sixteen works on paper that are presented as a set. In addition to landscapes, plant still lifes and figures, the images show motifs that are only remotely reminiscent of a specific object. In some cases the watercolors and ink drawings are overprinted with an inkjet printer, so that original and reproduction can no longer be separated.