Haunch of Venison London is delighted to present the first UK solo
exhibition by German painter Jonas Burgert this autumn. Known for his
complex and mysterious narrative-style painting, Burgert will present a
series of new medium and large-scale paintings.
The grotesque and the mystical provide the subject-matter for the
majority of Burgert's art. Bold, sensuous and opulent, the atmosphere in
his paintings is of a world of destruction and decay. Working in luminous
colours glowing amidst a backdrop of pale hues, the artist depicts an
apocalyptic mood of an end time, visions of a netherworld, an unknown
myth or a peculiar dream.
Each painting seems like a carefully constructed stage of the opera or
the circus, containing an artificial world set up with dramatic lighting,
exotic costumes, fantastical make up and stage props, and all of them
are oddly populated by humans and animals, shamans and magicians,
giants and dwarfs, demons and harlequins, creatures dead and alive.
One imagines Burgert controlling his cast like a puppeteer his
marionettes, creating new realities and chaotic, orgiastic universes on
the canvas.
Burgert's inspirations are multiple and derive from diverse ideologies
and cultures. They come from post cards and literature, images of the
Indian Holi Festival of Colours and from the artist’s travels to Egypt,
where he visited the remnants of its ancient culture. Another major
source of inspiration lies in art history, with many references to strands
of Late Renaissance thought visible in the works, particularly the
Mannerist’s love of the grotesque and the curious, of harsh and crass
colour disparities and of an exaggerated, 'unnatural' maniera.
A catalogue will be available in the autumn.