Bastian Börsig. Peng
Reinsburgstraße 68A
May 8 – June 6, 2026

Opening – Bastian Börsig is present
Friday, May 08, 2026, 6 pm – 9 pm

"Peng", in comic jargon, marks the moment of a sudden bang. Something happens abruptly, unexpectedly, with immediate impact. This impulse of surprise is central to the painting of Bastian Börsig. His works do not develop linear narratives, but rather open up situations in which meaning only begins to emerge through perception – often incidentally, sometimes inconsistent, and without resolving into a coherent whole.

The starting point is often personal memories and observations from everyday life. These are first captured in drawings, abstracted, and then translated into painterly form. In the process, they increasingly lose their clarity. Earlier works often dissolved figuration almost entirely; in the more recent works, individual forms begin to reappear more distinctly. Objects and fragments of bodies become visible without stabilizing. The pictorial space gains depth while remaining uncertain. What emerges is a structure in which things briefly take shape, only to disappear again in the next moment.

This ambivalence is closely tied to the painterly process, in which drawing and painting intertwine. Charcoal lines establish an initial structure that is later shifted or reworked. Paint is applied, scraped off, and layered again. Oil and lacquer interact, forming cracks and revealing earlier states. The surface remains visibly worked, retaining individual steps so that the image appears as the result of an ongoing process of negotiation.

Despite this material density, the works retain a particular lightness. Pastel color fields and shades of grey shape the tonality and stand in contrast to the physical presence of the surface. Within this tension, moments of surprising clarity emerge. Forms come into view, only to slip back into indeterminacy in the next instant. Pointed elements act like visual interludes, briefly sharpening the image, interrupting it, or tipping it into the absurd.

"Peng" thus describes a way of working in which images continually readjust themselves. They offer points of reference without becoming fixed, keeping meaning in motion. Perception is activated rather than directed.