Ghosts of things to come

A face, painted with photorealistic precision, that dissolves into colour and movement the very next moment. Figures emerging from the twilight. Landscapes in which the concrete and the fantastical flow into one another. Like apparitions, the images in this exhibition move between realism and abstraction, between presence and dissolution.

Curated by David Monllor

Swiss artist David Monllor first showed his work at Pretty Portal in February 2014 in his solo exhibition Fade into Nothing. Since then, he has continued to develop his visual language and painting technique, not only in the studio but also on his many travels. Along the way, he has worked on public projects with many renowned artists, with whom he now shares a friendship. For Ghosts of Things to Come, he has brought together a selection of these artists and also contributes a work of his own.

Painting Between Realism and Abstraction

All the participating artists are exceptional painting talents who know how to combine and transcend different stylistic devices. Andrew Hem tells mystical stories in atmospheric paintings, in luminous colours reminiscent of the transition from day to night. Daniel Ochoa explores the perception of identity, which reveals itself in the shift between realistic construction and abstraction. With dramatic distortions amid geometric patterns, Robert Proch questions modern life, like a glitch in the matrix. Benjamin Björklund deliberately keeps his compositions simple so that his subjects, often portraits in transformation, remain immediately accessible. With naturalistic night scenes, Sebas Velasco offers a glimpse into the closed world of graffiti writers. David Stegmann combines abstract painting and neo-surrealism into sometimes apocalyptic, visionary images about the coexistence of humans and the environment. Finally, David Monllor is known for his photorealism and its deliberate dissolution: between construction and deconstruction, he creates graceful, perfect illusions.

A Spearhead of Urban Contemporary Art

All the artists exhibit internationally; their works have been reviewed in renowned art magazines and have graced numerous covers. They belong to the spearhead of artists who have made an impressive transition from urban space to urban contemporary art and who decisively shape this movement. We are delighted to present this exceptional selection at Pretty Portal. On show are works on paper and canvas.

Andrew Hem

Andrew Hem was born while his parents were fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime of terror, and grew up between two cultures: the rural, animist world of his Khmer ancestors and the dynamic world of Los Angeles, shaped by urban art. Drawn to graffiti from an early age, he honed his graphic and compositional skills on the streets of L.A. before discovering his passion for figurative painting and graduating from Art Center College of Design. Using gouache, oil and acrylic, he creates atmospheric stories on canvas. Their mystical effect comes from a palette that conjures up a world in perpetual twilight.

Andrew Hem has exhibited worldwide, from the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York and the Portsmouth Museum of Art in New Hampshire to solo and group shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Miami, Toronto, Zurich and Lecce. His work has been published in Beyond Illustration, the Society of Illustrators Annual, Communication Arts, Spectrum, American Illustration, 3x3, Swallow and Hi-Fructose, among others. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Benjamin Björklund

Inspired by everyday life, Benjamin Björklund seeks to interpret emotions and characters in his paintings. He deliberately keeps his compositions and focal points simple to ensure that his subjects remain accessible to the viewer. His works often depict his family and close friends. Today, his paintings are held in private collections in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Melbourne and throughout Sweden and Europe. He lives and works in Uppsala, Sweden.

Daniel Ochoa

Daniel Ochoa on his work:
"The experiences I gathered growing up in a multicultural family shape the imagery and emotional quality of my work. Over time, I began to recognise cultural divides and to deal with conflicting viewpoints depending on the context. As a result, my perception of identity is constantly changing, and I am confronted with it again and again in my work, which is shaped by photographs, emotions and memories. I use different techniques to dissolve the boundaries between formal qualities such as abstraction and realistic representation. For example, I have used images from Google Street View and social media to show the effect technology has on visual language. Combining divergent elements suggests a pluralistic reality that spans from the historical origins of painting, through the self, to the influence of technology." (translated)

David Monllor

David Monllor was born in 1987 in the Swiss canton of Aargau to an Italian mother and a Spanish father, and still lives and works there today. As a child, he discovered his passion for figurative depiction and painting. At the age of twelve, he came into contact with graffiti, a subculture that has had a lasting influence on his work. His contacts in the urban art scene led to countless travels: he painted with many urban artists, was invited to international art festivals and created facade-sized murals.

Self-taught, he perfected his spray can technique. Hyperrealistic portraits and surreal still lifes became his trademark. In search of new forms of expression, he has discovered oil painting in recent years. His current works range from meticulously executed photorealistic paintings to abstracted portraits that dissolve explosively, creating an entirely new aesthetic in the viewer's eye through the movement within the image.

David Stegmann

In his work, David Stegmann explores the coexistence of humans and the environment. Combining abstract painting and neo-surrealism, his works sometimes seem apocalyptic and visionary, offering a glimpse into a fragile, organic microcosm. The concrete and the fantastical merge before the viewer's eyes, only to dissolve again the next moment. His inspiration is nature, with its absolute drive for perfection in colour, form and existence. The Swiss-born artist lives and works in the Breisgau region, where he experiments with different materials. Alongside painting on canvas and wood, he has been working increasingly with a mixed-media technique behind glass since last year.

Robert Proch

Dramatic distortions amid geometric patterns and shapes: Robert Proch's large murals stop traffic wherever they appear. As a teenager, he was already creating large-scale, provocative murals in his hometown of Bydgoszcz, Poland. Since then, he has painted murals around the world and exhibited his canvases in Poland, Denmark, France, Italy, Hungary, England and Germany. His abstract-figurative style draws equally on state-of-the-art animation and classic caricature, on Impressionism and modern graffiti.

A sense of movement and the adoption of time-shifted perspectives within a single image are central to his work. His painted narratives question the life of modern humans. Using vivid colours, he evokes concrete emotions, and rather than appearing crude or pessimistic, his art feels dynamic, captivating and often exhilarating. Sentimentality, ambition, fear, loss, presumption, greed and friendship are just some of the emotions ever-present in his paintings. In this way, Proch highlights the intensity of everyday experiences. In every work, a delicate barrier separates the earthly from the dreamlike.

Sebas Velasco

Sebas Velasco started painting graffiti in his hometown in 2004. He later moved to Bilbao, where he studied fine arts, specialising in painting. Today, he is distinguished above all by his outstanding technique and his devotion to naturalism. He works with oil, acrylic, spray paint and pencil. With a grant from the Antonio Gala Foundation, he completed his project Around the Wall, which was shown in several solo and group exhibitions in Spain and received numerous awards. At the same time, he has remained active in public space, painting walls in various cities in Spain and Europe, where he often finds inspiration for his studio work. Sebas Velasco lives and works in Spain.

"Ghosts of Things to Come"
Andrew Hem · Benjamin Björklund · Daniel Ochoa · David Monllor · David Stegmann · Robert Proch · Sebas Velasco
Curated by David Monllor

Opening
Friday, 30 September 2016, 7 – 10 pm

Exhibition
30 September – 4 November 2016

Pretty Portal
Brunnenstraße 12
40223 Düsseldorf