*Janus Hochgesand (born 1981 in Dierdorf)

lives and works in Hamburg

Janus Hochgesand has developed a distinctive position within contemporary painting, characterized by an extraordinary condensation of material, process, and expression. After studying sculpture at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, where he was a master student of Tobias Rehberger, he transferred a sculptural approach to painting. His works do not primarily arise from the classical gesture of painting, but rather from a physical and performative engagement with material, space, and surface.

Hochgesand describes his work as "High Intensity Paintings"—a term that refers to both the visual density and the intensive physical creation of his paintings. The starting point is the large-scale application of pigments to the canvas, which the artist then removes using unconventional tools such as brooms or vacuum cleaners. This process of repeated application and removal creates complex layers in which traces of movement, intervention, and time are inscribed.

Hochgesand describes his work as "High Intensity Paintings"—a term that refers to both the visual density and the intensive physical process of creating his images. In these layers of layering, a complex pictorial structure emerges, oscillating between control and chance. Hochgesand consciously draws on the traditions of Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel, transforming these influences into a contemporary, highly process-oriented practice. His painting is less about representation and more about the result of a continuous intervention in the material—a process that remains visible and preserves the energy of its creation.

The finished works appear like condensed events: surfaces seem simultaneously calm and dynamic, closed and open. The viewer is confronted with a pictorial structure that doesn't reveal itself at a glance, but rather unfolds its depth, rhythm, and materiality only upon prolonged viewing. In an age where images are often consumed fleetingly, Hochgesand's painting demands a slowed, concentrated perception.

His works are exemplary of a generation of artists who understand painting not as a closed medium, but as an open field in which physical action, material, and perception intertwine. It is precisely in this combination of performative process and visual intensity that the special quality of his work lies: It is a painting that is not only seen, but penetrated as an experience.