Exhibitions
The great mess
Jul 10 – Sep 3, 2009
Jul 10 – Sep 3, 2009
Clemens Wolf
OPENING
Thursday, 09.07.2009, 6.30 pm
WELCOME
Theodor Klais, STRABAG AG
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elisabeth Fritz, Art historian and sociologist
Clemens Wolf, born 1981 in Vienna, has his artistic roots in street art. Even though he now works on canvas, the reference to urban space is a central part of his work. Years ago he started looking for dilapidated buildings and making them the subject of his paintings. The aura of decay, the ambiguity of destruction and the threat posed by the sight of these places fascinates him so much that he strives in his works to capture the aesthetics in the moment of decay. In the large format pictures of the series “the great mess”, the young Viennese painter counterpoints the eroding monuments, the decaying architecture in the middle of urban spaces, using a structuring combination of oil and stencil techniques. It is his way of dealing critically with post-industrial and social developments without being overbearing. The current development of the world economy gives Wolf's monochrome aesthetic of decay additional current explosiveness, as some of the motifs symbolize the decline of industrial companies during the economic downturn of the last century. Other motifs, such as the burned down Sofiensäle in Vienna, bear witness to the inexorable end of a historical place and thus a piece of contemporary history. Geronimo-Noah Hirschal, editor and journalist
Photos: STRABAG ART
Upcoming
