Past Residents
Past Resident2014: The Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Olaf Brzeski
Olaf Brzeski’s practice is rooted in surrealist visions, which he puts into life via film, three-dimensional sculptures and installations. His comments about his own works do not so much mirror his personal interpretation, but narrate fictional stories, illustrated in the artworks or, in fact, made believable through the existence of the latter. This is the way in which Brzeski generates new worlds and their inhabitants.
Olaf Brzeski, Dream - spontaneous combustion, 2008, Bone soot, polyurethane resin and ash, 70 4/5 x 59 x 37 2/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, Untitled (from the little orphans series), 2009, Cast iron, chair, 35 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, Out of love for a woman, 2012, Steel, bronze, oil, paint and wood, 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 x 177 1/8 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, The fall of the man i don't like, 2012, Painted steel, 106 1/3 x 137 3/4 x 82 2/3 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Olaf Brzeski, Untitled (from the little orphans series), 2009, Cast iron, wood, glass and light, 82 2/3 x 35 1/2 x 51 1/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Past Resident2014: Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community Visual Arts Department
Manor Grunewald
Manor Grunewald is first and foremost as a painter, although he is also active in the fields of sculpture, installation and prints. His work is characterised by the constant analysis of the development of the pictorial in our daily environment. He finds and collects the sources of his images everywhere in daily life: in newspapers, advertising, books, comics, digital media and even illustrations of biological microcosms and macrocosms. His image archive serves as a source of inspiration, and his found pictorial material is often altered, partially on purpose and in some cases arbitrarily, by copying, enlarging or collaging. The artist thus creates new pictorial information, which is largely free of cognitively controlled processes and which reveal the unfamiliar, allowing this to become the content of his painting.
Manor Grunewald’s works have been exhibited across Europe and in the United States. In 2011, he was nominated for the Young Belgian Painters Prize at BOZAR. Recently, he has completed solo projects at Arco Madrid, Volta New York and Volta 9, Basel. Grunewald has presented recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne. He will take part in a group exhibition with Evan Gruzis and Christian Vetter at Super Dakota Gallery, Brussels in April 2014.
Manor Grunewald, Unhelpful Hunt - Ze hat is not mine, I'm only trying it on for size, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne.
Manor Grunewald, Unhelpful Hunt - Ze hat is not mine, I'm only trying it on for size, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist and Chaplini Gallery, Cologne.
Manor Grunewald, Life's a beach - grey, 2013, Oil, acrylics, spray paint, lacquer, paper, uv print on wood, 47 × 71 in. (119.38 × 180.34 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Manor Grunewald, Untitled (Organic Mess #2), 2013, Oil, acrylics, spray paint, silkscreen, foil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 27 1/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Manor Grunewald, Sloping Attempt (Atom Ant), 2013, Wood, epoxy, plaster, oil, spray paint, metal, foam, 55 1/2 x 50 3/4 x 10 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Belgium
Tobias Pils
Tobias Pils’s working method is characterized by the fact that when beginning a new piece of work he attempts to forget all past works, and engages with a motif. This motif can be anything from a traditional allegory to an abstract rhythm or harmony. His pictorial language as developed in recent years combines expressive elements with geometric structures such as grids, but never quite cuts the link with representation despite its dominant tendency towards abstraction. Intuition, inspiration and individuality are criteria relevant to Pils’s painterly oeuvre, and form the basis of his understanding of painting as a language and means of expression.
Tobias Pils (born 1971 in Linz) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. His selected exhibitions and projects include: Secession, Vienna, 2013; Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, 2012; Jack Hanley Gallery, New York City, 2011; Tenda Gialla, Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb, 2010; Beijing Biennale, NAMOC Museum, Beijing; Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul; Gironcoli Museum, Herberstein; Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2008; Tresor BA Kunstforum, Vienna and Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, 2007. Pils lives and works in Vienna.
Tobias Pilsc, Staircase - Secession, 2013, Glaze painting on ceramic tiles. Courtesy of the artist.
Tobias Pils, Secession, 2013, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist.
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 59 1/2 x 59 1/10 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 70 4/5 x 67 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Tobias Pils, Untitled, 2013, Mixed media on canvas, 90 1/2 x 72 4/5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
