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Jonas Burgert. Lotsucht / Scandagliodipendenza

MAMbo

26 January - 17 April 2017

Jonas Burgert’s first solo show in Italy, Lotsucht / Scandagliodipendenza, opens at MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna on 26 January. Curated by Laura Carlini Fanfogna, the exhibition fills the vast space of the Sala delle Ciminiere with 38 mostly large-format paintings created by the German artist over the last decade.

A master of imaginative figurative painting, with each brush stroke Burgert creates carefully constructed scenes filled with complexity. His works depict his vision of the theatre that is human existence, examining the instinctive need for humans to give sense, direction and purpose to their lives. This exploration encompasses realms of reason, imagination and desire, generating monumental landscapes crowded with fantastic figures of different proportions: monkeys and zebras, skeletons and harlequins, Amazons and children.
These dynamic pictorial dramas generate a strong sense of unease in the viewer: the subjects depicted wear masks and costumes, walls and floors split open to reveal piles of bodies or liquids, while an inexplicable darkness looms everywhere.

The works that are on display at MAMbo consist of both monumental canvases which provide space for sprawling narratives of compositional complexity and smaller paintings which focus on the study of individual subjects, portraits that push the figures portrayed into the foreground, as if under a microscope.

The exhibition is part of the fifth edition of ART CITY Bologna, an institutional program of exhibitions, events and cultural initiatives developed jointly by the City of Bologna and BolognaFiere. During Arte Fiera, it offers new opportunities to discover and learn about artistic heritage through a dialogue with contemporary art.

Lotsucht / Scandagliodipendenza is accompanied by a detailed catalogue published by Edizioni MAMbo featuring critical texts and images of all the works in the exhibition, as well as a selection of other works by the artist.

We would like to thank Blain|Southern for their kind cooperation and precious support.

Image above: Jonas Burgert, Stückfrass (2013), oil on canvas, 240 x 300 cm