Solo Show FIGURENKNÄUELSz-HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI @ RETRAMP Gallery, Berlin

Solo show from 9.04.2021 to 25.04.2021

RETRAMP Gallery presents the first solo show in 2021 with oil paintings by Berlin artist Howtokillagraffiti. Having returned from Songzhuang, an art colony in China, where Howtokillagraffiti has been intensively working on practicing oil painting for six years, he now presents his newest works at “Figurenknäuelsz” – realized in his studio in 2020 and during his residency at Retramp Gallery in 2021; conceptualizing the themes of Body, Mind, and Machine. Sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, Howtokillagraffiti’s works do not care about representing the real, the visible or a clear-cut narrative through color, but about human existence and the expression of emotions which are placed above the intellect. Howtokillagraffiti works intuitively and has taken upon himself to bring the essence of his large-format, outdoor “Graffpainting” to the canvas. Using a mixed technique of oil paint and spray-paint on linen, the artist creates a unique imagery, conglomerating in fascinating “balls of figures”, which take the viewer into a poetic world of surrealism and subconsciousness. Their strong expressionist vein will certainly not leave you untouched.

Curated by Katia Hermann

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Depending on the situation, we are open – respecting the corona rules, of course.

Please book your appointment during opening hours either in person at the gallery or by calling us (m: 01784476946).

How to kill a graffiti with painting

Life develops from a clew of color. Torn forms, figurative elements and areas of color unite in a lush composition, flow into each other as an accumulation of things, biomorphic forms and human body parts. The elements seem to swell out of the color surfaces, the matter itself. Male figures, naked female bodies, heads and delicate female faces – sensual, beautiful and fragile – look at the viewer with a certain melancholy. Individual body parts such as hands, arms, breasts live their own life in the paint itself, sometimes touching each other. Animal forms as limbs, bones, eyes, as well as surreal small illustrative human-animal beings sit in the picture between object-like volumes of pure color. The lifelike proportions are suspended, as are the foreground and background. Arranged as if on a stage or on a tray in a still life, the artist’s poetic compositions open up a world of the surreal and the subconscious, like the memory of a beautiful but also eerie dream, leaving behind fragments of images and impressions. Howtokillagraffiti’s pictures are both organic, erotic and tender as well as eerie, macabre and powerful, they fascinate and disturb at the same time. Through different textures, smooth or rough haptics, transparencies as well as selected color palettes and strong color contrasts, the artist plays with different painting techniques, which he knows to use masterly. The colors are partly expressionistic and partly naturalistic and his compositions are a challenge for the eye, a delight of forms and colors that have to be deciphered slowly. With tension and curiosity the eye wanders over his wall paintings and oil paintings. It takes time to grasp all representations, details as well as movements, dynamics and directions. Not clearly defined forms, smeared colors and apertures in the composition allow multiple projections and associations of the viewer. The own fantasy is stimulated to detect even more in the color clew. The eye searches hungrily in the more abstract areas for more figuration and finds here and there still mysterious appearances. In the background one discovers architectural elements, approaches of landscapes and horizon, and above all remains of the letters of his writer name ARTS. Large beams, bows, arrows, tips like claws, tails and spurs protrude from the background or from the sides. The colored areas and shapes underneath still follow some lines of the letters or curves slightly. In most of the paintings the four letters are clearly recognizable as the basic framework of the composition, in others they are hidden and can only be guessed by some remaining forms. His writer’s name is actually hidden in all of his works, but the matter itself and the figurative tangle has killed, blown up, absorbed or surpassed it, the artist shows us figuratively “how to kill a graffiti”. The impressive vital painting of Howtokillagraffiti triggers various associations and sensations. The painter leaves to the viewer the symbolic character of his figurative non-real representations and the interpretation of his works. And the different perceptions of the viewers say a lot about the emotional world of the people themselves: like a brief glimpse of their inner world. Touching, inspiring and mysterious as well as eerie, oppressive and melancholic, the art work of Howtokillagraffiti impresses each person differently, but above all it does not leave us untouched. Full of life, energy and passion, full of beauty and yet mysterious and dramatic, they narrate about the human subconscious, of its terrestrial existence and about life and death.

Text by Katia Hermann, 2020.

Captured from 9th of Apr 2021