2017 Catalogue Archive

Cartoonish figures, gestural marks, and amorphous blobs coalesce and pulse in this work by German painter Michael Bauer. Historical comparisons to Surrealism are undeniable, though Bauer’s work possesses an expressionistic, narrative element that links it to contemporary times. Here, a landscape of natural forms and objects intuitively develops beneath the profile of a face, which seems to be simultaneously speaking and creating the landscape. A veritable encyclopedia of painterly brushstrokes give the piece a surprisingly rich composition and surface, and underlines the dreamlike quality of the mysterious narrative unfolding before our eyes. Bauer has had several museum and gallery shows in the US and Europe.