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LEO KOGAN NOW

Now is no longer now. True now is almost impossible, now cannot be without immediately being recalled. Now is therefore a continuous and ultimately tedious repetition, always in recall and never fully being. On its own now cannot do much. It’s dependent on soon and before, on a future moment in which another now will come or on a time in the past when now was then. We comprehend now as the result of what already took place and as the introduction to what’s going to happen. That’s how we absorb the shock of change, the repeated pounding of the moment. Only what really is new – unexpected and possibly affecting the future – is keenly considered and added to our comprehension. Seeing is this: the eye registers movement, what stands still is taken for granted. The brain is always aware of the status quo and is only interested in updates.

It is as if there was an explosion that came to a halt right in front of one’s face. In it floats the debris of what with similar force is spat out daily by all possible media: Lara Croft, Sumo wrestler, piggy-bank, Saddam, blue jeans, Ron Jeremy, planet, Shania Twain, graph, portrait, the Beckhams, embryo, traffic light, parakeet, chess-board, diamond, 1399,--, SEX WITH THE EX, a man being executed from Goya’s famous Executions of 3rd of May, 1808. Images that are always residing somewhere, burnt into paper or light, kept in books and on shelves or on tapes and hard disks, in brain cells – referring to events that either shook the world or didn’t. Leo Kogan paints constellations of details, constellations that in turn contain the echo of the media from which the details have sprung: comic strips and games, films and television, technical and educational drawings, and painting. Leo Kogan strives in his work for the "utmost degree of contemporaneity".

Rendering now is something other than capturing the moment. A snapshot captures a certain instance, in a certain place; but now is everywhere and it is in fact always. Before another lens, to a different eye, in another medium and another language – all the nows from all places and moments belong together. With close-ups and vistas, with realism and symbolism, and with history and current affairs, Kogan conjures his time, his now. All shapes and objects, all the images that stuck to his retina while he was browsing and flipping through his cabinet and his memory were considered. His eye has registered, evaluated, and given them a place – has shattered their order and eventually carefully brought them to a stand still.

A present time viewer seeks entertainment and he is restless, because whether he will find it is unclear - the options are limited. Most media make use of formats and genres, gradations of fiction and mediated truth that at given times have varying manifestations. A game, a drama, a show, a spot, an item – he quickly calculates what he sees and then decides if it’s good for now or whether to move on further. Browsing or flipping channels is nothing less than the stationary replacement of the horizon, changing your outlook without having to move your body. Eyes love the change, the fingers love control.


In the work of Leo Kogan everything is in motion and at the same time everything stands still. Lights flicker, dials spin wildly, motors roar and speakers are pounding. Everything we see has made a journey, it has a source and a goal and at the same time everything is immediately present. Our senses are alarmed, the eye becomes alert: do not rest assured because change is everywhere. When motion is not motion perception confronts itself. We are looking because something is moving, but also because we are looking something is moving. The outlook shifts, what used to be a reflex or an instinct becomes a choice, one choice after another. The hands love the change, the eyes are in control.

Martine van Kampen (Vinken en Van Kampen)

Divine Intervention Calendar

2008
watercolor and ink on paper
50 x 70 cm

Washington Crossing the De La Where

2008
watercolor and ink on paper
50 x 70 cm

A.S. Pushkin Staging His Famous Experiment

2008
watercolor and ink on paper
50 x 70 cm

Mueum Explosion +

2008
watercolor and ink on paper
50 x 70 cm

Vertigo

2008
ink and watercolor on paper
50 x 70 cm

The Trophy

2008
ink and watercolor on paper
50 x 70 cm

The Crawler

2008
ink and watercolor on paper
50 x 70 cm

Baby Hitler

2007
acrylic on linen
30x 30 cm

Young Fidel Castro

2007
acrylic on linen
30 x 30 cm

Young Putin

2007
acrylic on linen
30 x 30 cm

Young Saddam

2007
acrylic on linen
30 x 30 cm

Young Stalin

2007
acrylic on linen
30 x 30 cm

Young Condoleeza Rice

2007
acrylic on linen
30 x 30 cm

Ahmadinejad

2007
acrylic on linen
30 x 30 cm

The Surreptitious Arrogance of the Uebermensch

2008
oil on linen
180 x 370

The Crawler

2008
oil on linen
150 x 200 cm

Washington Crossing the De La Where (to be framed)

2009
oil
215x220 cm

A.S. Pushking Staging His Famous Experiment (to be framed)

2009
oil on linen
200 x 400 cm

The Squirt

2009
foam, polester, paint
150 x 180 cm

Divine Intervention Calendar

2009
acrylic on linen
200 x 200 cm