Bernhard Buhmann “Unrast”

Marinaro

[Image: Bernhard Buhmann "The Brave" (2019) Oil on canvas 78.74 x 57.09 in.]

This event has ended.

“There are things that happen of their own accord, journeys that begin
and end in dreams. And there are travelers who simply answer
the chaotic call of their own unease”
-Olga Tokarczuk, Flights

Marinaro presents Bernhard Buhmann’s second solo show with the gallery, Unrast, an exhibition of new paintings.

In this body of work, Buhmann continues his exploration of the social consequences from the introduction of new technologies and their impact on the individual. In this context, the classical medium of painting serves as a level of reflection in order to be able to think about technological processes and their effects in a world that is flooded daily with digital content. The paintings become abstracted portraits, protagonists in a contemporary digital society.

Buhmann examines our world that is interlinked with digital communication, which tends to lead to communication without community. Only parts of an individual are revealed through digital communication and the true self can be hidden to show to only what the author wants the outside world to know. This new reality of the self is portrayed in Buhmann’s canvases, abstracting and obscuring the true identities of his subjects.

Built up over several layers and characterized by compositional tension elements that lead across the line to the surface and to large-scale color gradients, these works develop their individuality, by details and the specific color scheme. An abstracted fist wraps around the edge of a geometric form, a shoe peaks out from the bottom of the composition, a hat adorns the top or a pipe is wedged between two shapes—clues that are revealed to distinguish each portrait from the next. Small inaccuracies, distortions and traces of the painting process counteract the graphic impression of the pictures. They are digital-looking characters on the analog screen.

In the works that push towards a more pure form of abstraction, beautiful lines and gradients reference techniques that are easily attainable with computer software, but that Buhmann painstakingly creates with many layers of paint. Viewing the works through a computer screen the nuances of the hand are often hard to distinguish, but in person the paintings exhibit evidence of brushwork, layering and drips of paint. The paintings embrace our expectations that have changed with technological innovation—imagery, and self, can be manipulated and altered and we can never fully discern the truth behind an image.

Bernhard Buhmann (b. 1979, Bregenz, Austria) received a master’s degree from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and a master’s in Sociology and Communication Sciences from the University of Vienna. He has had solo exhibitions at Carbon 12, Dubai; Nino Mier, Los Angeles; Galerie Lisi Hammerle, Bregenz, Austria and Strabag Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria. He has been included in group shows at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; Forum Frohner, Krems, Austria; Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria; Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Muzeul de Arta, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Bucharest, Romania. He lives and works in Vienna, Austria.