„POLYPTYCHONSZ“ is the title of the actual solo show of the Berlin painter HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI, the outcome of a 4-month winter residency in the exhibition space of Urban Spree Gallery from January to April 2022. Presenting new series of large format mixed media paintings, created with oil, spray paint and some with charcoal on canvas, the artist chose to paint on various large formats adapted to the gallery space on one, two or even four panel paintings. Presenting amongst others three diptychs and a quadriptych, led to the title to this impressive show, carried out in only 16 weeks: „POLYPTYCHONSZ“.
Having returned to his hometown Berlin in 2019 from Songzhuang in China, the largest art colony in Tongzhou district in Beijing, where HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI has been intensively working on practicing oil painting for six years, he presented his first solo show “Figurenknäuelsz” at Retramp Gallery in Berlin in 2021. For „POLYPTYCHONSZ“ the artist could create larger formats due to the residency in the big gallery space of Urban Spree, because the formats as well is an important concern of the artist for his paintings on canvas, after painting over 15 years on walls, a practice he is still performing.
Sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, or mixing both, HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI’s works do not care about representing the real, the visible or a clear-cut narrative through color and lines, but about human existence and the expression of emotions which are placed above the intellect. The painter works intuitively and has taken upon himself to bring the essence of his large-format, outdoor “Graffmalerei/Graffpainting” on walls to the canvas. Using a mixed media technique, the artist creates a unique imagery which take the viewer into a poetic world of surrealism and subconsciousness. The own fantasy of the viewer 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 letters of his writer name ARTS or SUMER. 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 some of his paintings, letters are clearly recognizable as the basic framework of the composition, in others they are hidden and can only be guessed by some remaining touched shapes. The letters of his writer’s names are hidden in most of his works, but the matter itself and the figurative tangle has killed, blown up, absorbed or surpassed it, the painter shows us figuratively “how to kill a graffiti” with painting.
In his studio works with oil, spray paint and charcoal and despite the restrictions of the technique, HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI continues to work intuitively in the process of moving forward like for his temporary wall paintings outdoor, and this with a painterly approach. Because the textures, the haptics, the applications of oil, spray paint and charcoal, the structures, the brush strokes, lines and drips, the paint itself is shaping the picture. And through the various creative phases during the weeks-long painting process, an entire scenery that was not planned in advance gradually emerges. Compositions through layers, which remain difficult to grasp in their expression and do not impose any explicitness, because they are superimposed like the layers of paint and glazes as burning glasses to create a diffuse appearance like in a kaleidoscope. A view into the distance that feels close. Seen from afar and yet strangely close.It is the contradictions and simultaneity of life that are inherent in HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI’s paintings and thus tell something about our world, although his pictures avoid describing current events. In some works, the painter, after a certain distance from the picture, places an ironic commentary in the pictorial landscape. Now more as an observer, outsider and less than a creator, he adds a recognizable time-related figurative element. But the representation of the real, the visible world, as well as the mere narration through color does not really interest the artist. He is interested in emotion and feeling, which are placed above the intellect. And the painter manages to allude states of mind, drives, fears, cravings, the subconscious and surreal in human, and how we deal with it: with a smile, a wink or with melancholy and seriousness. Thus, the first glance at the large canvases of HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI can cause discomfort, disorientation, confusion. His works need time and the eyes to look longer, closer, to scan the surface, to enjoy the wealth of the different textures, in order to capture the entire composition and to submerge in the picture language and luxuriant imagery of each art work that you can actually experience only at „POLYPTYCHONSZ“.
In the frame of the current show HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI created a wall painting at „The Wall“ at Urban Spree , together with Spanish painter DAFNE Tree visiting Berlin, joining their different motifs – figures and architecture – in a similar wall painting technique, resulting in a playful harmonious composition.
„POLYPTYCHONSZ“
Solo show of HOWTOKILLAGRAFFITI
From 29.04.2022 to 5.06.2022
Tuesday to Friday 2-7 pm
Saturday & Sunday 12-7 pm
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