Humans in the altogether populate the exhibition “Skip the Pit Stop” of Samuel Blaser. It seems, as if they have left the civilisation behind them and are self-confident and at the same time vulnerable. In small groups or as single individuals, they appear on the canvas. Some of them are absorbed in incomprehensible actions, others search eye contact to the visitor. The “lucky loosers” have skipped the Pit Stop. They convey a peculiar presence, which is accompanied by a gentle irony.

Samuel Blaser goes backward to a more intimate and tabloid picture format. He paints in oil in several layers and glazes. For his backgrounds, he chooses often light yellow or blue color tonest that harmonize with the paintings of old masters. In the last two years the artist worked with models. He was primarly concerned with their physical appearance, he painted the faces in a free manner. The landscapes surrounding the naked body in his paintings are made up of fragments of architecture, roads, trees and meadows. Even abstract forms appear in his paintings, which delimit the landscapes and cross them, or form independent monochrome elements.

The paintings by Samuel Blaser escape classical interpretations, questions are deliberately left open. They give place- and timelessness, and only allow narrative addition. The naked persons have hardly any signs of expressivity; rather, they are in the state of a waking contemplation that involves the viewer’s gaze.