Urban Grünfelder

Paintings and self portraits Monika Genter

I believe the painter Urban Grünfelder would have chosen this plain title for a text about his art. “To purge” is the first word that comes to my mind in regard to his work, whose development I have been priviledged to follow over the past ten years or so; to leave out, to condense, to concentrate - until his canvases bear only what is indispensable to painting: pigment and fiction. Backgrounds in acrylic paints, figures in masterful oil paints, both often in bright “signal” shades, quite close to the co mon color properties, but always shifted a few nuances, which account for the unique character and which transform his works into pieces of art - quite an achievement. Maybe the fiction begins with the way he applies the paint. Grünfelder meticulously avoids every gesture, every individual “stroke” with his paint brush; the energy I see in the opaque monochrome shapes the artist takes himself from their surfaces. He conceals from the viewer that which we appreciate about many other paintings from different times and artists, also a desideratum in academic art history. At the same time Grünfelder knows only too well about the object character of every painting and thus the general impossibility of that concealment. In short, he provokes us. Open secrets - as viewers we could have begun thinking at the word “oil paint”. Suprisingly often - to me - the painter uses the word “communication” in context with his work. From this field we know that it is not concrete matter that meets and interacts, but rather wishes, desires, dreams, nightmares, projections, phantasies - in myths, metaphors, symbols. Ecce homo - and maybe this being is the most comprehensive of all our fictions. In general the paintings depict a person, seldom two, or rather something we could describe as “logo”, as signet, symbol, or metaphor of a person whose abstract outline, always faceless, without

individual recognizability, mostly genderless. Many of Grünfelders figures could be women; of course not “dulcet”, “round”, obsten sibly senseous, they serve no scheme. Urban Grünfelder says in principle he probably always only depicts himself, ecce homo. The stories, the conditions stick to the canvas as if pressed and shock frozen; motionless shells caught in their poses. Only the viewer is able to move - physically and mentally - and the artist invites us to do so. Examples: a figure in a shade of darkest blue crouches as if freezing in a cold blue winter morning, she protects her extremities, is physically and psychologically lonely. Or: a grotesk disembodied corpus, protects its head, plugs its ears, does not want to hear any more gruesome news, has enough since the cruxifiction, jerks. It is up to us. How far we want to see and hear the essence of these paintings. How much we allow ourselves to leave our social shells, the masks of society, and are willing to endure the naked sight of the other as well as ourselves. Another crouching figure in a different painting, helmet head, in an almost military dark grey, with lustful curledup toes he extends himself over the canvas and shoots, as he believes, into the world - and yet he appears to us like a skewered, literally dumn ape, who will not leave his red cage. I do not want to have to decide if I shoot, even without testicles. The duality of our role as the viewer, the sense of being watched while watching, always makes for a shared experience. A rare painting depicting two figures, identical frontal half nudes, grouped together to a triptychon with an empty light blue. Our view cannot find a hold in it. Do they threaten us? Do they want to separate into the emptiness of the adjacent paintings, or maybe more brutally, do they want to duke out or endure something among several, among many? Or are they yet again only an “I”, social or psychological conflicts among three, between two, or within one?

Territoriale Langeweile Universelle Weite, 2014, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Zum Glück ist der Tod im Eimer, 2014, oil on canvas, 180 x 150 cm

Back to the Big Bang, 2014, oil on canvas, 180 x 150 cm

Running heads, 2013, oil on canvas or varnish on aluminum, size variable

Puh puh puh, 2013, oil on canvas or varnish on aluminum, size variable

Pneu Mania, 2013, oil on canvas or varnish on aluminum, size variable

Training with the Death, 2013, oil on canvas or varnish on aluminum, size variable

The suffocate voyager, 2013, oil on canvas or varnish on aluminum, size variable

Balance terror, 2013, oil on canvas or varnish on aluminum, size variable

Untitled, 2005, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Untitled, 2005, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Untitled, 2005, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Untitled, 2005, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Untitled, 2004, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Untitled, 2004, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Untitled, 2003, oil on canvas, 140 x140 cm

Born 1967 in Brixen/Italy

Institute of Arts St.Ulrich/Italy Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 1986 A-levels at Institute of Arts St. Ulrich/Italy 1989 Sculpture Department (Prof. B. Gironcoli) Master School 1990 Painting Department (Prof. M. Prachensky) Master School 1993 Painting Department (Prof. A. Rainer) Master School 1993 Institute of New Media (Prof. P. Kogler) 1995 Diploma for painting Selection: Exhibitions/Projects/Fairs 2013 Feldkirch, Palais Lichtenstein, GrauRand Bozen, Gallery Prisma, Humans Klagenfurt, Künstlerhaus, Humans 2012 Vienna, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Halali. Die Jagd nach dem Zeitgenössischem Kiel, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, The Human Senses and Perception in Contemporary Art Köln, Gallery Schmidla, The fragmentary Man 2011 Vienna, art austria Vienna, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Was für ein Mensch bin ich? Munich, Munich Contempo Vienna, Leopoldmuseum, The Excitement Continues, Contemporary Art from the Collection Leopold II 2010 Bologna, Arte Fiera Vienna, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Home_life Vienna, art austria Basel, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Hot Art fair Vienna, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Basel Back

2010 Munich, Munich Contempo Cologne, Art.fair 2009 New York, Scope Cologne, Gallery Schmidla & Voss, Ecce Homo Basel, Scope Cologne, Art.fair 2008 Miami, Scope Vienna, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Querschnitt Vienna, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Recent Works 2007 Vienna, Viennafair Cologne, Art.fair Frankfurt, Gallery Artbox, Recent Works Vienna, Justizzentrum Wien, Different Levels Bolzano, Galerie Goethe2, Summer Container Braunschweig, Academy of Fine Arts, Entsorgungspark für funktionslose Kunst im öffentlichen Raum 2006 Frankfurt, Gallery Artbox, Sculptures Murau, Wedam Schlössl, Trimorph Bolzano, Gallery Goethe2, Riunione di famiglia Hannover, University Hannover, Entsorgungspark für funktionslose Kunst im öffentlichen Raum 2005 Hildeseim, Kunstverein Hildesheim, Entsorgungspark für funktionslose Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Bolzano, Gallery Goethe2, The summer collective Graz, Gallery Tazl, Schockgefroren Bodenburg, Kunstverein Bad Salzdetfurth e.V., Hand in Hand Wolkersdorf, Forum Schloss Wolkersdorf, Urban Grünfelder & Paul Justus Lück Graz, Gallery Tazl, Contemporary in Graz Nürnberg, Gallery Hafenrichter & Flügel, Soloexhibition Urban Grünfelder Bolzano, Südtiroler Kulturinstitut, In Südtirol, lebt in Wien Korbach, Kreishaus, Grafics

2004 Düsseldorf, Gallery Andrea Brenner, Group Exhibition Düsseldorf, Gallery Andrea Brenner, Paintings Città della Pieve, Gallery Fox, Drawings Vienna, Gallery art position, Die Vielfalt der Beschränkung Baden, Kunstverein Baden, Paperworks Vienna, Akademiehof, 25 Jahre Gesellschaft der Freunde der bildenden Künste Eisenstadt, Burgenländische Landesgalerie Eisenstadt, Grafics Vienna, Gallery art position, Opening Exhibition Bolzano, Gallery Prisma, Künstlerische Grafik, Südtirol 2003 Vienna, Dorotheum, Auction SWI Vienna, Museumsquartier, Q21, Caribbean Winter München, Gallery Storms, Young Austrian Art Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum, Conflicts/Resolution Vienna, Ottakringer Brauerei, art position 2003 Vienna, Innenministerium, art position at Innenministerium Bolzano, ar/ge kunst, Gallery Museum, Idee Corporee Munich, BCG, Denken ist Handeln Vienna, Sotheby´s, art position at Sotheby´s 2002 Vienna, Shinergy Zone, Spiegelzone Ulm, Stadthaus Ulm, Central - Neue Kunst aus Mitteleuropa Vienna, Ottakringer Brauerei art position 2002 Vienna, Soho in Ottakring, flüchtig/daheim Vienna, Palais Porcia, Global Fusion 2002 Cologne, Gallery Binz & Krämer, Neue Kunst aus Wien New York, Tokio, Aachen, Wien, Transwien, D´Art 2001 Vienna, Galerie Museum auf Abruf, In Südtirol, lebt in Wien Krumau, Egon-Schiele-Center, Works from the Collection Leverkusen, Museum Morsbroich, Central - Neue Kunst aus Mitteleuropa Vienna, Podium, Paintings Salzburg, Schüttkasten, Central - Neue Kunst aus Mitteleuropa Vienna, Museumsquartier, Central - Neue Kunst aus Mitteleuropa Vienna, Soho in Ottakring, urban und ländlich Paris, Espace Ernst Hilger, Young Austrian Art

2000 Vienna, Siemens artlab, Die Neuen Vienna, Soho in Ottakring, Open studio Krumau, Egon Schiele Center, Open studio 1999 Vienna, Song, Solo exhibition 1998 Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, IRR, Group show 1997 Vienna, Semperdepot, Progetto Arte Zeltweg, Schloß Farrach, Steirischer Herbst, The perfect audience Düsseldorf, Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Artomaten - Kunstobjekte in Zigarettenautomaten Essen, Zollverein Essen, Artomaten - Kunstobjekte in Zigarettenautomaten Marl, Glaskasten Marl, Artomaten - Kunstobjekte in Zigarettenautomaten 1995 Munich, Gasteig, Dance 95 Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Studentenausstellung 95 1994 Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Paradieshaus 1993 Bolzano, Panorama, Menschenverknotung Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Klangarten

www.gruenfelder.at Die künstliche Fettsucht, 2012, Keramik/Lack, 120 x 60 x 25 cm