Henning Strassburger: Mai 2023 Cat. CFA Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin

In his new paintings, Strassburger seems to abandon abstraction in favor of the human body, one of the main interests of figurative art. And yet the images show bodies under water, in the shower and in the swimming pool, slowly blurring the boundary between the body and its environment. The fact that water can take on any color and any physical state is taken up by Strassburger in his own color palette. The suddenness and tranquility inherent in water create a myriad of tension of utmost importance for the medium of painting. Water distorts, reflects and blurs shapes – it is these properties that make it one of the most desirable motifs within the productive field between abstract and figurative art. For Strassburger, however, the issue between abstraction and figuration isn’ t of interest. Much more, water and its proximity allow for the fragmentation of the body as well as “ situations that can resolve in any direction” . Imbued with a web of cultural connotations, Strassburger takes up the symbolism of water, its flow and tension for the combination between surface and depth in the painting, creating an atmosphere of both easiness and melancholy. Figures floating in bathtubs, swimming pools and hot tubs hover between depiction and poetic abstraction.

Dana Ž aja (b. 1994) studied art history and comparative literature at the University of Zagreb and in the master’ s program at the FU Berlin with a concentration on contemporary art. Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunnet (the founder of the gallery in 1992) are a permanent part of the international gallery world with CFA situated now at Grolmanstraß e in Berlin/Charlottenburg. Their work is inherent part with the beginning of artistic careers of Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Sarah Lucas, Jonathan Meese, Raymond Pettibon, TAL R, Daniel Richter, Dana Schutz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Katja Strunz, Juergen Teller, or Marianne Vitale, just to name a few. Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunnet (the founder of the gallery in 1992) are a permanent part of the international gallery world with CFA situated now at Grolmanstraß e in Berlin/Charlottenburg. Their work is inherent part with the beginning of artistic careers of Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Sarah Lucas, Jonathan Meese, Raymond Pettibon, TAL R, Daniel Richter, Dana Schutz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Katja Strunz, Juergen Teller, or Marianne Vitale, just to name a few. Henning Strassburger (b. 1983) is a German artist who works with painting, video, objects, and installations. His work repeatedly reflects on the role of painting as a filter of the aesthetics of a mass culture. He completed his studies with Daniel Richter at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2005– 2006, before studying with Albert Oehlen at the Kunstakademie Dü sseldorf in 2006– 2009. In 2014 he was a visiting professor at the University of Nevada, and in 2015– 2016 at the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe.