Henning Strassburger “Fünf Bilder”

Blumenthal

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Blumenthal Gallery presents Henning Strassburger: Fünf Bilder, an exhibition of new work by the Berlin-based artist. This marks Strassburger’s first one-person exhibition in New York.

Henning Strassburger’s energetic mark-making, a staccato of lines punctuated by spontaneous bursts of movement in all directions, activates the flatness of his canvases. In appearance, the works reference the expressive tropes of Post-War painting: a flat picture plane, all-over painting, intuitive brushwork. However, Strassburger’s use of these devices is a ruse; a calculated coolness belies the surface of each work, which is created through an analytical, automated process intended to confuse the viewer. He lifts colors and imagery—cool blues and brisk purples, shower splashes and air-conditioner drips—commonly used in print and online media to suggest that it is impossible to separate painting from reproduction and appropriation. The result is, in the artist’s words, “a painting that is not a painting.” Indeed, Strassburger’s works are an exercise in image-making and perception, where painting is the subject in itself.

Henning Strassburger (b. 1983, Meissen, Germany), lives and works in Berlin. He graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2009. Recent one-person exhibitions include Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, Germany; Múrias Centeno, Lisbon, Portugal; Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen, Germany; Kunstverein Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany; Soy Capitan, Berlin, Germany; Galerie fiebach, minninger, Cologne, Germany. Group exhibitions include Collection of Thomas Olbricht, Berlin, Germany; Collection of Ernesto Esposito, Palazzo Fruscione, Salerno, Italy; Kunsthalle Athena, Athens, Greece; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; Galerie Nagel+Draxler, Cologne, Germany; Showroom Florian Christopher, Zürich, Switzerland. He has held teaching positions at University of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, Germany.