Lost Figures in a Volatile World

Andy Denzler has exhibited in London, Los Angeles and Lisbon.
Now showing at Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery, Zürich: "Short Cuts"

"Ah non, monsieur, la peinture est plus bête que cela" answered Renoir to a critic, trying to interpret his work. As if thinking and intuition would exclude themselves. If however understanding and feeling form an apparent conflict, things get interesting.

Denzler proceeds conceptually and systematically. On the canvas however, mysterious apparitions appear which contrast exact organization and nebulous poetry -the intellectual argument as well as a planned and artistic precision: intellectually, the 43 year old Denzler familiarizes himself with topics until a well thought out concept is revealed; planned, because he carefully divides time and his core activities required for the creative processes and artistically because of his free reign to experiment with photography, subject and color.

Denzler has a quiet, composed manner about him. He answers questions only after careful consideration. One has a sense that much is being played out in his mind, one can imagine how he researches the reasons that take him where he wants. He is not a political artist, but rather an examiner of social issues. "The Iraq war, which was started because of non-existing WMD, the re-election of George Bush in 2004 were a catalyst for much work. "I had to make a statement", he says. Photos of Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Moor, Pope Benedict XVI or also Marylin Manson were source material for the series "American Paintings", 2005: black-and-white portraits, put together for a moment of double moral dissolution.

The series "Insomnia", 2007 also seem propelled by a dark dynamic. Between the pulsating hectic and his own restlessness in a grueling 24 hour society, Denzler created large format heads in black-and-white which record submerged moments moving in opposite directions.

Denzler`s interests found in public places in cities like London, Zurich or Los Angeles, are recorded by his camera. His source material is inspired by films like "The Birds" or "Magnolia" as well as own his photography. Denzler doesn`t just lay film stills and memory traces on top of one another, he cakes layer upon layer of heavy, impasto oil. Large format paintings with several Kilos of oil paint, applied with a trowel, Denzler says his painting style is more in the mode of a sculptor than a painter. This mode of paint handling in his current exhibition "Short Cuts" is on view at Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery till December 19th 2008.

Andy Denzler investigates intensively and with deep interest the medium, idea as well as theatrical possibilities of painting in the today's time, where he enjoys an important and independent position with collectors in the international art scene.

One cannot really near Denzlers figures, these apparitions seem to disappear in an abstract no-mans land. As a viewer, one would like it snatch a glimpse, one cannot however. That Denzlers fleeting bodies elude the viewer, is fascinating - much like the subtle melancholy, which many of his pictures emanate.