Adrian Uncrut | Woher, Wohin

24th February to 24th March 2022

Adrian Uncrut's work is influenced by his education in sculpture and restoration at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. While Uncrut was still strongly influenced by the practice of composing and planning in his early creative years, he has increasingly switched to working intuitively in the last few years.

The topics of his artworks are personal, ordinary and above all human. Uncrut finds inspiration in artists he admires such as Beys, Duchamp or Baselitz. But he also humorously implements everyday encounters with friends, family members and fellow artists in his drawings. In addition, figures from Christian and mythological stories repeatedly find their way into his works. The artist asks questions like: Where do I come from? Where is our society and our current use of resources taking us?

A recurring theme in his art is “moving forward”. The motif of representation that occurs repeatedly in this series of works is the vehicle, which stands as a symbol for movement. "The vehicle," says Uncrut, "represents both the present we cannot break free and a progression through space."

So there are two layer of meaning in it - the subjective layer, in the sense of making progress in one's own development, as well as the desire for further development of people in dealing with each other and the longing to escape from the present. The other layer is physical movement and the question of our movement spaces - where do my feet take me during a lifetime? To what extent do our daily commutes, relocations and travels affect us and our environment?

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the sculpture Noah's Ark. You can see a figure made of epoxy resin, a boat is tied to its back, the boat is filled with cut off power cables. Standing on a blue-lit ground, the figure has raised his arms and appears to be taking a step forward. Uncrut unites three biblical figures in the sculpture: Moses, who parted the sea with raised hands to save the Israelites from the Egyptians, Noah, who built an ark on behalf of God, and Jesus, who went across the sea to his disciples and saved them from a storm. Above all, the sculpture also contains topics and motifs, which are relevant to the present time. The boat can symbolize many things - a saving ark that will bring you to a better world or a capsizing ship that can sink any time. The severed power cables are a reference to the use of our resources and how modern technology determines our lives. In the end, the figure appears to be balancing on water, constantly in danger of going under the next moment - a feeling that many people are familiar with, especially if you think of the last two years.

What is striking in Uncrut's oeuvre is his extraordinary handling of materials in sculpture and drawing. He mixes bronze, brass, iron, stainless steel, wood, caoutchouc, plaster and often also recycled “objets trouvé” and transforms them into independent works. In the medium of drawing, on the other hand, he uses charcoal, watercolor, adhesive tape, various types of paper or even coffee, thus achieving a unique, individual pictorial language. The use of handmade paper creates a special, almost three-dimensional feel and it seems as if these are not two-dimensional works, but rather thin reliefs.

 

KURT HÜPFNER

STUDIO EXHIBTION

11 June - 30 July 2021
 

Galerie Dantendorfer is pleased to show the work of Kurt Hüpfner in an extensive studio exhibition. We will display changing artworks of the Viennese artist for a view months, to give the visitors the chance to experience the whole range of Hüpfners oeuvre.

Kurt Hüpfner - painter, sculptor, draftsman, author, visionary and much more. One word is not enough to describe the Viennese artist and his 70-year oeuvre. Born in Vienna in 1930, Hüpfner first got in touch with art and literature in his youth through reading cultural magazines such as “Der Turm” or “Der Monat”. On the title page of the “Turm” he first saw a modern painting (The Man with the Carnation) by Vincent van Gogh in 1946 and was “struck by lightning”. One year later he began his education as a commercial artist at the Higher Graphic Education and Research Institute in Vienna-Neubau. There he laid the basis of his drawing training, which accompanied him throughout his work. In the 1960s Hüpfner was a permanent guest in the reading room of the Albertina in Vienna to satisfy his hunger for education and inspiration. He started to experiment with the practice of “automatic drawing”, which is not planned, but rather flows intuitively from the hand of the artist. The origins of this lie in the écriture automatique of the surrealists of the 20s. Later he used these drawings as studies for sculptures and assemblages.

A turning point in his work was the production of his first sculptural work Lady with a Beautiful Hairstyle in 1962, which he reinterpreted in 1969 in the woodwork Nymph Cloacina. Hüpfner spends his entire life in Vienna. He only travels a few times with his wife Fritzi or through his job as a chauffeur, but none of these stays made a lasting impression on the artist. Due to limited financial resources, he is often forced to use everyday materials such as recycled waste or limewood. In the 80s and 90s he also made the first plaster and terracotta sculptures, which he often painted with oil paint.

Hüpfner's artworks are thematically shaped by personal encounters and experiences, at the same time he processes memories of war and historical events of the 20th century in his art. Also striking are the many characters from novels, mythological stories and the Bible, which repeatedly find their way into his works. From this bundle of influences, the artist creates a unique world, full of mythical creatures and figures, created using a variety of materials, colours and forms. The color palette is mostly gloomy, only a few works have bright, fresh accents. The works appear mostly raw and coarse, the pen and brush strokes and especially in the sculptures, the traces of the artistic hands and tools can still be seen. Hüpfner’s art leaves ample room for interpretation, the artist himself constantly reinterprets his work. He says himself that he is not interested in the characters and the story itself, the aim is to find the right arrangement of lines on surface. What is striking is that his compositions are mostly flat and that a spatial impression is usually created by putting one flat layer behind the other. He decides to give priority to the overall effect of a work and thus to neglect obscuring details. It should give the impression of being fleeting, as if the moment in front of us would dissolve again at the same moment.

Petra Lupe | ichbinimmerviele

18. November 2021 – 11. February 2022

I am always many - many techniques, many perspectives, many formats, many materials, many layers, many repetitions, many work steps, many thoughts and feelings. The exhibition gives an insight into the diverse works of Petra Lupe, who lives in Upper Austria, and shows her astonishing handling of different materials and techniques.

The focus of the exhibition is formed by three series of works: Texture, Open Rooms and Inside my coloured world.

The works from the Texture-series, created in 2020, are united by examining the different characteristics of materials. The layering of ash, egg tempera and cotton creates exciting surface structures and the need to feel them in the spectator. The works are connected by monochrome, which is repeatedly interrupted by the changing haptics and the incidence of light.

The term "room" or "space" got a new meaning last year - space to work, space to enjoy, space to live, space to be, spaces of thoughts and spaces of feelings. In the series Open Rooms, Petra Lupe processes the experience of restriction and tightness, as well as the need and desire for freedom - not only on the outside, but above all on the inside.

It is impressive how many facets can be found in one color - in the works from the Inside my colored world-series, you can indulge in this color observation and discover new shades, surface structures and patterns.

From canvas to paper and sewing work to objects, the artist calls it “working on trial and error”. Many materials are recycled through Lupe and find their way from her surroundings into her work. The artist experiments with it, let herself into the different properties and properties of ash, cotton, cardboard, ... and experiments with it. Working in series is particularly important for Lupe, because only by repeatedly dealing with one topic or material she dives deeper and finds her way forward layer by layer until the right visual language is found.

If one looks at the works as a whole, one encounters a multitude of characteristics that are often opposed to one another in our social understanding: male - female, monochrome - polychrome, coarse - fine, chance - plan, light - dark, abundance - reduction, emotional - Rational, rest - movement. In her works, Lupe manages to combine this seemingly contrary in a symbiosis. Everything finds its place and fits into a diverse yet singular overall picture.

Text: Selin Stütz

LOOK TWICE!
2 June - 2 July 2021
 

There is a recurring theme in Peter Baldinger's extensive oeuvre: Dissolution. Whereby he always approaches it from a different point of view, tries to rediscover it through different techniques and engages with it playfully. In the paintings in the exhibition BALDINGER. LOOK TWICE he works with everyday motifs and well-known subjects from art history in a very systematic way, asking himself the question: How much information is necessary to recognize a picture motif? Or the other way around: How much can image resolution be lowered without losing the motif?

Just as one is able to understand a sentence despite a few letters are missing, it is also possible to „read“ Baldinger's work. However, it takes a trained viewer and some physical distance to recognize the selected motif in its resolved form. Similar to the works of Impressionism, recognizing the motif from close up is difficult. If you look at the work from a sufficient distance or through a photo lens, the outlines of what is depicted become increasingly clear. It turns out that everything is contained in the works - all necessary information, only reduced to the essence of the colours and transformed into square "pixels". The choice of oil and watercolour painting is reminiscent of works by old masters of art history. The result is a contrast between the large-format oil paintings, in which the colours shine and have a permanent effect due to their opacity and intensity, and the delicate watercolours on heavy hand-made paper, in which they appear translucent and almost fleeting, as if the "pixels" could fade away the next moment.

The origin of the idea to deal with the topic of dissolution lies in the way modern media deal with the question of identity in the flood of images of our time. Am I the pictures and reports that can be found in the media or do I completely dissolve in them And can I recognize my true self in the pictures that are circulating of me with enough distance? Is my essence visible in them?

That is what you find in Baldinger's works - the essence of the chosen motifs, respect for the subjects and at the same time a constructive critique of the current Zeitgeist.

BENKA | Virtual Insanity

2. September – 22. October 2021

BENKA born in Abu Dhabi in 1983, moved to Vienna when he was 12 years old and consequently spent all of his school year here. After finishing school, he studied clinical psychology, while also focusing on his music. Yet he has always had a passion for visual art, which first manifested when he painted on the walls of his parents' apartment. Since 2015 he has devoted himself entirely to painting. He finds inspiration in works by Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pierre Soulages and Katherine Bernhardt.

The daily use of constant preoccupation with smartphones and the potential risk of an associated addiction are based on the artist's thesis in the field of clinical psychology. The fascination for this social phenomenon and rapidly increasing rate of digitization inspired him to engage with the theme artistically. BENKA wants to question the interaction with artificial intelligence, social media and the robotization in his art and thus start a discourse on necessity and use.

The numbers and letters in his paintings are captchas. A captcha is a test that protects websites from so called bots. These tests are intended to distinguish whether the user is a person or a machine. The captchas are reinterpreted by BENKA and in his art they become a tool of artistic debate.

The large format of the canvas and the use of different materials are characteristic of his work - he mixes acrylic, oil, pastel and spray paints on one canvas. However, the starting point in every work is formed by the predetermined numbers and letters (captchas) in the picture. Afterwards the free brushwork, disorder and abstraction come into the picture. He himself describes his art as "organic chaos". In our exhibition VIRTUAL INSANITY we show a comprehensive insight into the work of the artist and his criticism of the virtual madness of our time.

ALL IN
25 Mar - 27 May 2021
 
 

KURT HÜPFNER

Kurt Hüpfner’s 70 years ongoing oeuvre consists of sculptures, assemblages, collages, paintings, wall hangings, caricatures, graphic reproduction, bundles, text pictures, graphic novels and hundreds of drawings. The starting point of his artwork however is always a drawing. Hüpfner encountered the method of écriture automatique early on in his career. This style was popularized by surrealist artists in the 1920s in Paris and describes a drawing that is not planned or composed. This practice is the opposite of what Hüpfner learned in his education as a commercial artist.

The main themes in his art are political events, personal memories and encounters as well as his personal studies of authors, artists and text sources. The outcome is a unique world, full of mythical creatures and figures, created using a variety of materials, colours and forms.  Hüpfner’s art leaves ample room for interpretation. The artist says that he is not interested in the figures and their stories in themselves. His aim is to find the right arrangement of lines on surface, so that only a fleeting impression lingers, as if a moment had come and just slipped away.

 

CHRISTINE MAYR

Christine Mayr started in the 1980s to focus her work on the complexity sourrounding growing up, being a child, being a mother and simply being a human. Her drawings and sculptures are empathetic, courageous and provocative at the same time. A certain disharmony unites the figures, in their bodies as well as expressions. Physical traits are not always consistent; a young body with an experienced face, gender is often ambiguous - but in Mayr’s opinion this does not matter.  Her art is not about realistic representation, but about human experiences and feelings.

Since 2019 Mayr has dedicated herself to a new topic – face blindness. She is working to bring this special form of perception to paper, giving the spectator an impression of how individuals with face blindness experience their environment.

Mayr draws with coloured pencils on paper, her sculptures are constructed from ceramic and are sometimes coloured and glazed. Most of the time she works intuitively, she doesn’t compose her artworks, but simply lets them grow and emerge.

 

ADRIAN UNCRUT

Adrian Uncrut’s art is shaped by his education in sculpture and restoration at the Bucharest National University of Arts. The general themes of his artwork are based on personal experiences, everyday life and above all "being human”. His artwork is vulnerable, thought-provoking and humorous. He creates his own mythology, in which he is the storyteller and thus is able to be part of the story as well as anobserver. This is how he stays connected to his works while keeping the necessary distance. It gives the spectators the opportunity to get an insight into his inner self, as well as to interpret the work individually for themselves.

Uncrut strikingly uses different materials in his sculptures as well as in his drawings and collages. He mixes bronze, brass, iron, stainless steel, wood, caoutchouc, plaster and from time to time also recycled materials and molds them into individual artworks. In the medium of drawing he uses coal, aquarelle, tape, different types of paper or even coffee to find a unique visual language. It almost appears like they are not two-dimensional drawings, but thin reliefs.

 

Images: Julia Haimburger © Galerie Dantendorfer