Stefan Annerel

What is the foreground, what is background? What was printed first, what was printed over it? There is something illusory about both experiences. It is as if there is a moment when the brain rushes ahead of our sensory perception. Stefan Annerel has made this phenomenon the subject of his paintings. At first sight, Annerels work is easy to read. It consists of attractive, glossy, abstract canvases, in which horizontally and vertically painted bands of varying width define areas in a multitude of colours: orange, turquoise and black, green, lime and white, red, orange and deep blue, purple and green... The canvases somehow resemble pieces of a chequered fabric, with a pattern that appears in all sorts of combinations and sizes. As he presents his paintings, Annerel often extends the coloured bands onto the walls, where they provide a visual support for the paintings that hang above, underneath, on or in-between. On looking closer, Annerels paintings themselves turn out to be illusory. What at first sight seems to be a two-dimensional area, may prove to consist of various superimposed layers; what seems to be painted, may be tape; what seems anchored in abstraction, is sometimes based on a figurative element. Seeking inspiration in c...