Paco Koenig: Domi Reversi

In the new solo show of Paco Koenig (b. 1990), painting becomes a space for renewal, rather than an image to arrive at. Growing up between Berlin and annual summer retreats to a small island in the northern Aegean Sea, Koenig developed a rhythm of departure and grounding that continues to shape his practice. In this exhibition, that rhythm folds inward, as self-portraiture becomes a way of thinking through return as a creative state.

Presenting a new series of photorealistic paintings and abstract works on untreated aluminium, Koenig draws on the Latin phrase Domi Reversi, meaning "return to one's origin,” recontextualizing the artist's studio as more than a site of creative genesis. It becomes a space of accumulation and reconnection, where objects and tools, rough etchings and daubs of paint, register as traces of the self. Identity emerges obliquely, through inversion and withholding. The instant snap of a photograph is slowed, time stretching like putty, as he transposes these images into methodical, hyperrealistic paintings formed by slow, subtle brushstrokes, mirroring his durational practice of mark-making on industrial metal sheets.

At the center of the exhibition is “Verso,” a large-scale figurative painting of the artist at work, seen from behind. A painting of the photo of a portrait. His tight jeans and cocked hip draw on the visual language of masculinity and workwear, alluding to rugged cowboy imagery and sexually charged rock-and-roll album covers. The decision to turn away from the viewer, hiding his face, is both deliberate and necessary for the admittedly introverted artist. From this vantage point, anonymity and striking self-exposure find balance—redirecting attention toward the act of creation.

This indirect approach to self-portraiture extends to a series of object paintings rich in symbolism. A worn black carpentry brush—once used by his father to paint walls, and later repurposed by König to scrape paint away—appears as both tool and image, while a lone, reclusive tulip—its petals closed tight like armor—becomes a proxy for the artist’s own interiority. Together, these forms create an interplay between natural and artificial: the white flower points upward, poised to bloom, while the dark brush hangs downward, weighted by Koenig’s creative lineage. Within them, the self emerges, extending beyond the body and into the realm of objects.

This extension into material form continues in a series of abstract paintings on untreated aluminium. This use of the crass industrial material traces back to Koenig’s architectural background and experience working in a steel workshop, where he learned to love its material constraints. Within an artistic practice driven by mark-making, aluminium offers a surface that records every action irreversibly. Stains, scuffs, and damage accrued through unsteady handling, transport, and deliberate mistreatment are allowed to coexist with intentional gestures. These works become chronicles of time – of hesitation, repetition, and duration – mirroring the creative labor of his photorealistic practice. 

Across Domi Reversi, the self remains unsettled, drifting between figure, tool, and surface. Metaphor, symbol, and material merge, producing an image of the artist beyond form. Here, self-portraiture moves beyond depiction, becoming a slow, methodical process of marking, withholding, and continual return.

Text by: Chris Erik Thomas