Dirk Salz ‘s painted “pictures” contain geometrically formed structures lying hidden beneath their surfaces – as if “under water”. These are extremely shiny, reflective even, sealed with varnish on the outside, and thus, at the same time, they translocate both environments and viewers to their insides. They do reflect their surroundings – but this is determined by what is inside them.

These paintings – if we may simply refer to pieces by Dirk Salz as “paintings” – actually do indicate a very real depth. It results from the specific painting material that Salz has been using for years now. His painting method does not have much in common with the traditional notion of applying pàint with a brush to a picture carrier such as canvas, wood, or paper. Instead he distributes a certain number (or none at all) of more or less thick layers of epoxy resin enriched with paint pigments upon multiplex boards.

Epoxy resin is a transparent material. This has the effect that the gaze actually penetrates the picture, traversing a real spatial depth of several millimeters. When the material is drying it also forms a hard, for the most part smooth, surface that strongly reflects the light. What the artist wants, is to encourage, even force, the viewer to take a closer and longer look. An effect he gets thanks to the technique he uses. We discover then the composition as well as the colors from the piece.

At first glance, it is hard to tell which lines, forms and levels of brightness “belong to the painting” at all, and which of them are “mere” reflections. Everything is so reflective. So as to be able to sharply distinguish them, it is in turn necessary to move about, viewing the piece from different distances and angles.