Alexander Vogels

It may be interesting to know that Alexander Vogels (*1952 Heerlen) spent his childhood in Australia, that he traveled through the Tassili Mountains in North Africa and visited various Native American reservations, and that he has a keen interest in primitive cultures: but what is important is that he is an extraordinarily gifted artist. His inspirations shape his work, but it is his painting style that makes him so captivating. The materialization of the intangible, his handling of paint, and the adventurous struggle with color through which he effortlessly evokes primal and positive emotions. Alexander Vogels is a lyrical-abstract painter through and through. At times he draws in to an almost dizzying abstraction, then exhales powerfully with expressionistic force around a spontaneously emerging figuration. For Alexander, however, figuration is not an end in itself but merely a support for the color composition. Frequently recurring elements such as ladders, masks, and vehicles are not symbols but playful building blocks that provide a foundation for the abstract interplay of colors. Every artist has a father and a mother: according to Alexander, his were Kandinsky and, above all, Ger Lataster—two giants of the art world. When confronted with that statement, Lataster responded: “But he did solve it in his own way.” With the little word “it,” the master aptly articulated the universal problem of the artist. Now, after countless exhibitions and art fair presentations from Mallorca to Stockholm, from Vienna and Frankfurt to Salamanca and Paris, and with his work featured in major art collections, it is finally Maastricht’s turn—the capital of Limburg. Alexander learned to paint there, back when it was still the City Academy, under Gilbert de Bontridder and Peter Wehrens. His work is rooted in this soil; this is where Alexander once began his artistic journey of discovery. Through his canvases (often large-scale), he offers us an intimate account of his spiritual journey into the essence of painting.