Nicola von Senger

Olaf Breuning

06 Nov - 24 Dec 2010

© Olaf Breuning
Me Me Me You, 2009
Wallpainting, Black Ink
Size variable


OLAF BREUNING
06 November - 24 December, 2010

Galerie Nicola von Senger is pleased to present new works by Olaf Breuning in collaboration with Baur auf Lac, Art in the Parc VI.
In his current exhibition the artist combines large wall drawings of simple graphic illustrations with linear wooden sculptures, made of strips of wood glued together and painted black, like 3D versions of the wall paintings.
Breuning’s art asks existential questions. Although it is not his aim to find answers with his works, the artist provokes a multitude of them. While the viewer thinks he knows the answer, more and more questions keep coming up. Countless new interpretive possibilities appear, similar to a little child that always has a new question for each answer. The viewer is invited to reconsider his perspective time and again and to question the meaning of it all.
As universal the big questions in life are, as intimate and subjective they are. To keep hold of them, the artist withdraws and chooses through his drawings an expressive medium which reflects the contemplative process the best. The childlike line seems to take the initially heavy content of the questions and invites a spontaneous reception.
By enlarging the small scale drawings into huge wall paintings, the intimacy of the original drawings becomes invalid and their intended impact is turned into its opposite. The questions present themselves loud and directly to the public and almost demand the observer to look for answers.
At the same time the questions seem to actually impact the viewer spatially. Additionally, Breuning has transformed the drawings into sculptures, so called 3D drawings. He expands the dimensions not only within the exhibition space, but also in the viewers’ imagination.
The artist goes one step further by simultaneously presenting in the gallery exhibition sculptures from his current working period as well as showing them in a public space. On the occasion of Art in the Park VI at the Baur au Lac the sculptures are impressively exhibited in the Park and seem to call out to the world the big questions of life.
The artist plays on the viewers’ reflexes and feelings, the reaction and perception of the observer are always a focal point in his work. The first spontaneous reception turns out to be hasty, confusion occurs that ultimately gives way to clarity. A clarity which is very personal and each finds for himself just as life is a unique reality for each and everyone.

Judith Platte, October 2010
 

Tags: Olaf Breuning