Surreal worlds
where the observer are introduced through performance, movies, photography, sculptures, drawings and, since recently, also through painting, are the core of Olaf Breuning’s artworks from the 90’s. He often seeks his inspiration in the pop-culture, adding to his work a touch of humor through which to inspect the rules of the global society in a new way.
Don’t Worry (2015) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
“Mr. Breuning specializes in relentless satire that sends up all manner of visual and social conventions: television, sports, bad movies and worse rock bands, as well as fairy tales, creation myths, tribal rites (past and present and mostly male) and, naturally, contemporary art. His New York debut offers an installation, a video and eight large colour photographs, and it progresses from abysmal to promising.”
This is how Roberta Smith, critic for the New York Times, welcomed the first exhibition by Breuning. Right after the dramatic events of 09/11, the exhibition put forward an exorcising of fear and of the culture of the “entertainment factor”.
Traffic in the Sea (2005) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Those works were already anticipating some aspects that are now common and widespread such as experience utter solitude even in the middle of a crowed or the incomprehensible will to trade one’s privacy for the feeling of safety.
You Can't Teach Old Dogs New Tricks (2018) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
The text that came on the cover of the issue 71, 2004 of Parket stated: “Fanciful figures they are, those youthful creatures who stare at us out of Olaf Breuning’s photographs and videos. And yet their sectarian looks, their air of dishevelled arcane knowledge, trash archaic civilization and marketing slavery, communicate a disturbing sense of gruff exclusion.” These are surely relevant comments even when describing the famous video “home”, presented in 2008 at Whitney Biennial, NY.
This Time It Will Work (2007) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Later, always keeping an eye on social changes, Breuning focuses on new dynamics – such as the one of colours about to explode in an insane work in progress – to raise the level of the awareness of the observer towards his/her everyday, digital and non.
We Are All In the Same Boat (2018) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Irony is the instrument that Breuning uses to observe reality, as it were for the first time, and the act of production of a work and of the meaning of creativity. It is in this perspective, for example, that he creates the installation Clouds (2014) at Central park where he introduces the use of a color that looks as much fake as iconic in those shiny aluminum clouds, a sculpture without volume, as in a comic imagery; but also the gigantic mural he produced at Zentrum Paul Klee (2013) with a geometric grid that ruled that bombs of color thrown by the public.
One Second, Whose Legs? (2005) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Both cases are reactions to the actions of the painter meant as solipsistic and detached from the flow of life. Breuning’s research subsequently developed towards a radical reflection on the themes of the museum, the art-collections, the role of artworks in an era of intangibles archives.
Heart (2015) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Olaf Breuning was born in Switzerland in 1970 and he is currently living and working in New York.
Bully (2015) by Olaf BreuningTHAT'S CONTEMPORARY
Olaf Breuning recent relevant exhibitions include: The Life at Metro Pictures, New York (2015); The HOME Trilogy at Metro Pictures, New York (2013); Human Nature at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2012); The Art Freaks at Palais de Tokyo, Parigi (2011). Breuning’s works are also present in several world-renowned collections such as the Kunsthaus Zurich, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Ellipse Foundation, Portugal; and Collezione La Gaia, Italy, among many others.
This virtual exhibition was brought together with Galleria Poggiali on the occasion of the exhibition "We Are All In The Same Boat” visitable from January 30th 2020 to March 28th 2020.
Discover more here.
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