Andy Denzler (born 3 August 1965) is a Swiss artist. His distinctive technique of distorting the freshly applied surface of his paintings has shaped his entire oeuvre in painting, printmaking, sculpture and drawing.
Life and works Denzler was born in Zurich. He trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule and the F+F Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich, both schools of applied arts, as well as at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena. In 2006, he graduated as Master of Fine Arts from London's Chelsea College of Art and Design. Denzler lives and works in Zurich.
Denzler's works are shown in solo and group exhibitions in international galleries and museums,Solo Exhibition at Kunstforum Wien, Vienna 2018Solo Exhibition Empire Inc., Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany in Europe, America, Asia and, since 2010, also in Russia. His works can be found at the Denver Art Museum, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montreal, Canada, the David Roberts Art Foundation, London, the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art in Israel, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the White House in Washington DC, at the Museum Würth at Schwäbisch Hall in Germany, at the Burger Collection Hong Kong, the White Cube Collection, London, the KunstWerk – Sammlung Klein in Eberdingen/Stuttgart and at the Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany.
"I bring time and motion into the imagery, by using both time and motion. It’s an alla prima technique, painting wet-on-wet; I control the speed of the painting process, because there is a limited amount of time before the canvas dries".Interviev in Creative Boom, by Katie Cowan. Inspiration / Arts & Culture, 14 June 2017, retrieved 15 December 2019 Through the streaks of the blurred image surface, Denzler's paintings appear as if the time on them has momentarily stopped. Denzler's works move between abstraction and reality. With the classic means of oil painting, the artist endeavors to fathom the borderlines between fiction and reality. Through his mostly horizontal use of a squeegee for blurring the oil paint, which he previously applies to the canvas in heavy impasto and thick layers, he achieves the impression of the object's motion blur or the notion of a distorted, faltering video recording. Time freezes. The paintings are snap-shots of events that take place, blurred, distorted movements, Freeze Frames that stylistically move between Photorealism and Abstract Expressionism. In his paintings Denzler frequently alludes to our life in a disruptive age of lens based images.
Reception
The distorted photo-like quality of Denzler's paintings provides an alternative to our often ignored reality. Intent on pushing the boundaries between abstract art and photorealism, the artist captures the realism of the everyday, creating a unique moment on canvas. (Reality Glitch, Schön! Magazine, November 2019Interview with Katie Shuff, Issue 31, November 2019, pages 199 ff | retrieved 15 December 2019 )
But unlike many contemporary painters, Denzler doesn't reproduce the photographic image onto a canvas to create a template for his work. Instead, he paints freehand, using the photograph as a reference, and building up layer upon layer of wet paint. Then, when he has a 'perfect painting', he deconstructs it, leaving in its wake traces of what was. The vestigial image, boldly striped with horizontal scrapes made by a spatula dragged across the canvas, has the effect of a video that has been permanently put on pause, giving the viewer a sense that something came before, and something will come after. But what remains in the present is a single transient, but captive, moment. (Creative Boom, 14 June 2017 by Katy KowanCreative Boom, Inspiration / Art & Culture, Fragmented Identity: Andy Denzler's blurred and frenzied artworks of distorted moments.)
"Denzler's new paintings unite the precision and nostalgia of realism with the bold dynamism and pulsating energy of gestural abstraction. Creating mysterious, eerie and sometimes uncomfortable moments, the artist invites the viewer into his private, voyeuristic world. Known for his signature style of thick horizontal bands of pigment traversing the canvas in thick choppy abstract strips – staccato points that add visual energy and suggest details lost in the fog of memory, time and space." (Wall Street International Magazine/Arts, 24 January 2014Wall Street International Magazine - Andy Denzler. Between the Fragments, (Arts; United States) 24 January 2014, retrieved 15 December 2019 )
Denzler analyses the medium, the ideational and representational possibilities inherent in present-day painting with dedication and enthusiasm. He has thereby secured himself an important and individual position on the international art scene. (Tages-Anzeiger, 24 August 2008, translated from German)
Exhibitions (selection) Biennials
2016
Not New Now, Marrakech Biennale 6, Marrakech Memory and Dream, 6th Beijing International Art Biennale, Beijing
Solo exhibitions
2023
Spectral Paintings, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
2019
Paintings of Disruption, Opera Gallery, Seoul Introspection, Opera Gallery, New York
2018
Human Perspectives, Opera Gallery, Zurich The Dark Corner of the Human Mind, Kunstforum Wien, Vienna The Painter's Room, Opera Gallery, Paris
2017
Fragmented Identity, Opera Gallery, Monaco Fragmented Figures, schultz contemporary, Berlin
2016
Random Noise, Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery, Zurich Between Here and There, Opera Gallery, London
2015
Breakfast with Velázquez, schultz contemporary, Berlin Just Another Day in Paradise, Brotkunsthalle Wien, Vienna Sequences, Opera Gallery, Geneva Figures & Interiors, Ludwiggalerie Schloss Oberhausen, Germany
2014
Distorted Moments, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz The Forgotten Palace, Budapest Art Factory, Budapest Under my Skin, Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery, Zurich Between the Fragments, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York
2013
Empire INC, Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany Dissolution & Resolution, Kunstraum Osper, Cologne
2012
Interior/Exterior, Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin The Sounds of Silence and Distortion, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York Shifting Landscapes, Kunsthalle Dresden, Germany Developing Landscapes, Gwangju Art Museum, Gwangju, Korea
2011
Interiors, Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery, Zurich Freeze Frame, Michael Schultz Gallery, Seoul Dissonance and Contemplation, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York
2010
The Human Nature Project, schultz contemporary, Berlin Distorted Questionments, Art + Art Gallery, Moscow
2009
Motion Paintings, Gallery von Braunbehrens, Munich
2008
Short Cuts, Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery, Zurich A Day at the Shore, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles
2007
Blur Motion Paintings, Gallery von Braunbehrens, Munich Insomnia, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon
2006
Fusion Paintings, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles Moon Safari, Chelsea College, University of the Arts, London
2005
American Paintings, Kashya Hildebrand, New York
2004
Blur Motion Abstracts, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles
2002
White Paintings, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles
External links Artist’s Website
Andy Denzler: Distorted Moments, in Noah Becker's White Hot Magazine Issuu Exhibition Catalogue for Human Perspectives, published by Opera Gallery Them. Magazine Issue June 2016, page 153 ff, article in Japanese Metal Magazine, Freeze Frame Paintings, Andy Denzler interviewed by Carlota Winder
References