At first glance, Mads Gamdrup’s paintings may appear reductive, limited to material and color. Yet, a closer look reveals a bodily presence – gestural brushstrokes, traces of movement, the impression of arms and hands in motion. Materiality is central: the tactility of pigment, the weight of the brushstroke, the way a color can be perceived not just with the eyes but with the body. By stripping away imagery and composition, the awareness of surface, texture and interaction with light and color is heightened. Rather than presenting a static field, the paintings demand slow looking, where perspective shifts over time, posing essential questions about perception, contemplation and the act of seeing itself.

By reducing painting to a single color, Gamdrup invites a form of embodied looking – one that moves beyond recognition into sensory experience. The paintings are not about what they depict, but about how they are experienced. They exist in relation to the viewer, unfolding in time and space. The viewer’s movement through the space interacts with the work, and the experience shifts according to the light, scale, and texture of the painting.