Isak Koch Artist - Lichtblick

ray of hope

50cm x 70cm
Mixed media on canvas (stretcher frame)
Multimedia art (photography and painting)
Hand-signed and sealed with high quality
2023
Exhibition piece (2024)

with a signed authenticity certificate


About the painting

The painting 'Lichtblick' depicts a haunting, surreal scene in a dilapidated, cold-looking room with blue tiles. In the center stands an old, rusty wheelchair – its frame fragile, its wheels worn down, a clear reminder of forgotten patients and unspoken suffering. The walls are cracked and faded, indicating years of neglect.

What immediately catches the eye is the ethereal, ghostly figure beside the wheelchair. The figure is cloaked in a flowing white garment, translucent and kneeling as if praying or lovingly caring for someone. Its hand rests on the wheelchair as if offering comfort and protection or perhaps awakening a memory. On the opposite wall, in a small, recessed shelf, dusty glass bottles once filled with medication now stand as relics of a long past era.

The painting tells a story of abandonment and resilience. Once, this place was filled with the screams, hopes, and fears of those seeking healing. Time has taken its purpose away, leaving only remnants behind. Yet, the ghostly figure symbolizes something that endures beyond decay: hope itself. Although brokenness dominates the scene, the spirit—fragile yet composed—embodies the persistence of compassion, love, and care that once prevailed at this place.

The title 'Ray of Hope' suggests that even in the darkest, most forgotten corners of existence, there remains a light. It is not loud or overwhelming, but gentle and steady, reminding us that healing and humanity cannot be erased, even through time or decay.



About the artist:

Isak Koch (*1962); artist and photographer

Isak Wilhelmus Koch (* June 8, 1962, in Vrede, South Africa) is a versatile and talented artist and photographer who has already gained significant popularity not only in his homeland but also in the USA, Canada, and Europe.

Isak grew up as the son of a farming family in a rural area of South Africa, where his fascination and love for animals and nature developed. This fact is still strongly reflected in his paintings, drawings, and photographs today.

After school and A-levels (1980), he studied graphic design at the Technical University in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng. Here, he began experimenting with a wide range of styles and motifs, mastering them over the course of his career. These include, alongside realism: surrealism, impressionism, abstract art, pencil drawings, scientific and digital illustrations, as well as (art) photography.

Er Malt because he loves painting, because he hopes that through his work, he can bring the viewer closer to, or make them feel, the beauty and rhythm of the seemingly banal things in our world.

Numerous private and public exhibitions followed, including in South Africa and Namibia (1990-2014, among others in buildings of the South African government), Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Portugal, and Germany (including Heilbronn; Lörrach, Weil am Rhein, Öhringen).
Since 2015, Isak has been living and working in Schefflenz, near Mosbach (Baden).

His motifs are found in nature: in flora and fauna, as well as in landscape scenes, with a preference for abandoned places, serving as a visual metaphor of transience. Man-made creations are returned to what is inherently there — nature and time. Both represent the dissolution of existing structures and change.