Alexander Basil
Entourage
22 APRIL – 04 JUNE 2022
Robert Grunenberg is delighted to present Entourage by Alexander Basil.
Solo Exhibition:
Alexander Basil
Entourage
Robert Grunenberg
22.04.2022 – 04.06.2022
Since his early years at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, and Vienna Academy of Fine Art, the artist Alexander Basil has established an immediately recognizable style where painting and drawing blend in the most delicate way.
Often working on large-scale canvas, Basil engages with an ongoing theme: the human nude. Maybe one of the oldest genres of art itself, nudes of the human figure open up a variety of readings, and Basil plays with these ambiguous themes that span from objectification to empowerment, from seeing to being seen. Basil’s portraits of figures resemble the artist himself and the motifs stem from his personal life. We are privy to the most sensual scenes of sex and lust, as well as moments from everyday and domestic life, oftentimes in the bathroom.
Are these stories of love or pain? The sometimes upsettingly explicit scenes are not pornographic, it’s an unusual intimacy that Basil offers and it’s hard to turn away from the images. They cast a spell when the large figures sometimes comfortably, sometimes uncomfortably sit or lay in the minimal abstracted bathroom or bedroom interiors. Even though the motives resemble each other and come in only slight variations of color and form, each work is unique and manifold in its simplicity – one can’t get enough of these beautifully crafted pieces that offer many readings in times when the body has become a complex political place around gender, identity, and power. In the exhibition, a presentation of several small drawings are been presented next to the painting.
Alexander Basil (b. 1997) currently lives and works between Düsseldorf and Vienna. Basil has studied at The Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, and The Academy of Fine Art, Vienna, under Professors Elizabeth Peyton, Daniel Richter, Kirsi Mikkola, and Tomma Abts.
For more information, please contact the gallery: mail@robertgrunenberg.com