16/10/2026
The paintings are made from thinly diluted washes of oil paint on found sailcloth, cloth that spent a working life holding wind and has since retired from it. I cut the sails into squares, though a corner is often missing — a sail is not a square and I would rather lose the corner than lose the sail. I let the washes run. Gravity makes most of the decisions. Layer after layer, I keep building the experience of a wave, the feeling of the ocean: this planets all-encompassing, overwhelming unique, and extraordinarily thin outer layer.
That is what I am after here. Not a picture of water. The oil paint becoming water, becoming the ocean.
Text by Thomas Øvlisen
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Installation view of Gravité Perdue, a solo exhibition by Thomas Øvlisen. The exhibition is on view at V1 Gallery through November 14, 2026.
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