INSIDE OUT
RECEPTION: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7th 6 - 9 PM
EXHIBITION DATES: NOVEMBER 5th - DECEMBER 20th, 2026
UDO NÖGER
INSIDE OUT
RECEPTION: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7th 6 - 9 PM EXHIBITION DATES: NOVEMBER 5th - DECEMBER 20th, 2026
UDO NÖGER
UDO NÖGER
INSIDE OUT
Callan Contemporary is pleased to present Inside Out, an exhibition of paintings by internationally known artist Udo Nöger. Working at the intersection of painting, sculpture, and light, Nöger has developed a distinctive visual language that challenges traditional notions of the painted surface. His work explores the relationship between material and immaterial, presence and absence, inviting viewers to reconsider how paintings occupy space and how light transforms the experience of seeing.
Nöger’s practice is distinguished by his innovative use of translucent canvas, carefully manipulated and layered to create compositions that appear illuminated from within. Through a process involving canvas, mineral oils, and subtle structural interventions, he constructs surfaces that both absorb and transmit light. Forms emerge and recede within these layered planes, creating a sense of depth that resists conventional perspective. Neither entirely opaque nor fully transparent, the paintings appear suspended between material presence and immaterial space, suggesting a depth that extends beyond the physical boundaries of the canvas.
The inclusion of Nöger’s charcoal paintings introduces a complementary dimension to Inside Out. In contrast to the luminous, translucent surfaces of his paintings, charcoal offers a more direct engagement with mark, texture, and the physical presence of the artist’s hand.
The title Inside Out speaks to a central tension within Nöger’s work: the movement between an internal world and its outward expression. Shapes that seem embedded within the paintings become perceptible through the very surfaces that conceal them. Light reveals what material obscures, while transparency becomes a means of constructing form rather than dissolving it.
This reversal encourages a more attentive mode of looking, in which the image is gradually disclosed through observation and experience.
Balancing formal restraint with perceptual complexity, Nöger’s paintings occupy an unusual territory between abstraction and physical presence. Their monochromatic fields and organic geometries evoke a meditative stillness, yet this apparent simplicity belies a sophisticated investigation into the conditions of visibility. Light becomes an active participant, animating the material structure and continually transforming the viewer’s encounter with the work.
Born in Germany in 1961, Nöger has exhibited internationally, and his work is held in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami; and Haus der Kunst, Munich, among others. In 2027, a solo exhibition of his work will be featured in Chasing the Light, Dancing in the Shadows at the San Diego Museum of Art.
In Inside Out, Nöger transforms painting into an encounter with light itself, revealing how the intangible acquires form, depth, and presence.
"If you are in front of my paintings.....then just look at them ....you do not need an explanation."
- Udo Nöger
Udo Nöger
Lichtfelder 52 2025. 23 1/2 x 36 1/2 in, 2025
charcoal on canvas
23.50h x 36.50w in
Udo Nöger
Lichtfelder 52 2025. 23 1/2 x 36 1/2 in, 2025
charcoal on canvas
23.50h x 36.50w in
