Janus Hochgesand, born in 1981 in Dierdorf, studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe from 2002 to 2004 under Professor Andreas Slominski. After a study stay in Mexico City, he continued his education at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main from 2005 to 2009 under Professor Tobias Rehberger, graduating as a master student. Since 2010, Hochgesand has lived and worked in Hamburg.
In his paintings, Hochgesand places color and its material qualities at the center of his work. Under the term “High Intensity Painting,” he has developed a distinctive visual language characterized by vivid colors, rich textures, and a pronounced tactile quality. Oil paint, oil pastels, and pure color pigments are applied to large-scale canvases, layered and sometimes removed again. He also employs unconventional tools such as brooms and vacuum cleaners, moving away from traditional painting techniques and transforming the process into an immediate, experimental practice.
Hochgesand’s works exist between controlled composition and spontaneous movement. The multilayered applications of color create relief-like surfaces that reveal dynamism, rhythm, and traces of the artistic process. Painting is understood not merely as a finished result, but as a physical act in which movement, material and expression are inextricably linked. His works invite viewers to experience color in all its depth and vibrancy and to engage in an immediate, sensorial encounter.
