Christian Rothwangl with Gallery Krinzinger on view at Parallel Vienna
Munchies Art Club Magazine Is Proud To Present An Artist Statement By Austrian Contemporary Painter Christian Rothwangl At This Year's Parallel Vienna Art Fair, Held At The Otte Wagner Areal, In Collaboration With Gallery Krinzinger.
Christian Rothwangl Unveils Latest Works At Parallel Vienna Art Fair With Krinzinger Gallery.
Munchies Art Club Magazine Explores The Artist And Anticipates His New Showcase: The Artistic Repertoire Of Austrian Talent Christian Rothwangl Is Predominantly Composed Of Drawings And Paintings.
Born In 1993 In Bruck An Der Mur, Rothwangl Embarked On His Artistic Journey At The Academy Of Fine Arts In Vienna Under The Mentorship Of Gunther Damisch And Christian Schwarzwald In 2013.
Even During His Studies, Which Concluded In 2020, The Artist Achieved Early Successes And Participated In Numerous Exhibitions.
In 2017, Rothwangl Undertook A Study Period At The UCL Slade School Of Fine Art In London, And Two Years Later, He Was Awarded A Scholarship From HfBK Hamburg.
ABOUT CHRISTIAN WORK | WORDS BY PAULA WATZL
According to Francis Bacon, the artist has only one job: to deepen the mystery.
He succeeds best with two means - irrationality and chance, as anything else, according to Bacon, would reduce painting to mere illustration.
However, Christian Rothwangl not only knows how to use these two elements but also pushes their boundaries.
The experienced, the read, and the dreamt are condensed into serial narratives. The reading direction is not necessarily determined by the content but rather by recurring forms and archetypes.
"The Artist Has Only One Job: To Deepen The Mystery"-Francis Bacon
DISCOVER NEW WORKS BY AUSTRIAN ARTIST CHRISTIAN ROTHWANGL FOR GALLERY KRINZINGER SCHOTTENFELDGASSE! ON VIEW NOW AT PARALLEL VIENNA 2023
Now and then, the artist appears among them in a self-reflective manner, only to get lost again in the mix of figures.
Nothing is overly clear; everything is a suggestion with multiple meanings.
They become readable through the series that relate them to each other. It is always groups in which Rothwangl thinks, and they define themselves for the outsider, not least also through their own worlds of color.
Christian Rothwangl works in ink. It is one of the most traditional forms of color - colored pigment mixed with a binder - but Rothwangl thinks nothing of tradition.
He dissolves the ink layer by layer in water baths and makes it an accomplice to achieve what is actually impossible in painting: chance becomes a co-author.
Layer by layer, the paint builds itself up into a carpet, a stage for the events. It breaks open, covers up, and blinks through the layers.
In Rothwangl's work, color is, loosely based on Hermann Hesse, "obsession that creates fun." Carried by the color, literary figures celebrate parties on canvas or paper, together with Ikea stuffed animals, the outcome of which seems open.
The chains of associations that the artist pokes at with his brush are numerous. Sometimes infantile, then again mythological, here and there everyday human, and thereby also repeatedly sexual. The many strands of thought are held together in the frame.
Rothwangl always pays special attention to the outermost part of the picture; it becomes a window frame into another world.
A universe in which all the regularities of the actual reality from which the pictorial ideas originate are thrown overboard, abstraction and figuration dissolve into one another, and rushing chaos coexists with profound calm.
Christian Rothwangl works out his motifs in countless sketches, quickly scribbled diaries then become precisely elaborated pictorial bodies whose titles suggest that there is always much more at stake than what the viewer may grasp. A delightful game.
Text by Paula Watzl
ABOUT THE ARTIST: CHRISTIAN ROTHWANGL
Christian Rothwangl, who was born in 1993 in the Styrian town of Bruck an der Mur, studied not only under the guidance of Gunther Damisch and Christian Schwarzwald at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but also at the HFBK Hamburg with Jutta Koether and at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.
Already in 2019, the Vienna-based artist was selected as part of the Belvedere 21 Exhibition "On The New," followed by numerous solo and group exhibitions, including one in 2023 at Krinzinger Schottenfeldgasse.
VISIT CHRISTIAN ROTHWANGL AT PARALLEL VIENNA:
Christian Rothwangl is currently showcasing his work in collaboration with KRINZINGER SCHOTTENFELD at PARALLEL Vienna, specifically in Room 24/009. Follow the Artist on Instagram: Christian Rothwangl or his Gallery Krinzinger.
Thanks to the Artist Christian Rothwangl and Gallery Krinzinger for the Images by Carmen Albers.
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