works f.l.t.r.: "spica", "contra I", "contra II" oil on linen, 2010 [ ]

spica, oil on linen, 140 x 200 cm, 2010 [ ]

works f.l.t.r.: "smugglers", "the waiting", oil on linen, 2010 [ ]

the waiting, oil on linen, 70 x 80 cm, 2010 [ ]

smugglers, oil on linen, 100 x 120 cm, 2010 [ ]

room II, work: mixed media, 2010 [ ]

room I, works: all works oil on linen [ ]

emerald, oil on iron sheet, 70,5 x 100 cm, 2010 [ ]

room I, works v.l.n.r.: "zitta", "watte", oil on linen, 2010 [ ]

watte, oil on linen, 60 x 80 cm, 2010 [ ]

The new solo exhibition at arteparti gallery showcases new work by Bruno Wildbach.

contra
The works in this exhibition, which is entitled “contra,” are on a quest for a certain ambience and define the emotional character of a meeting. Amidst all the feelings of foreboding that accompany an adventure of uncertain outcome, arteparti gallery is presenting painting – Wildbach’s painting.
Reality is revealed as deception, and sense and meaning are attributed to the imaginary and fictitious in order to bring to mind that which is absent.

Wildbach’s painting consists not of clear-cut events, but rather speaks to perceptual occurrences; it brings forth reminiscences out of disorienting labyrinths, shows us something familiar but which nevertheless looks strange, something that we cannot grasp emotionally, which makes it that much more mysterious.
Wildbach once described his paintings as “controlled coincidences”. Indeterminacy, ambivalence and contradiction - Wildbach's work pursues all of these themes. He takes the idea of visual disorientation further and seems obsessively to practice the art of disconcerting. Wildbach’s paintings contain abstract codes, as well as representative symbols, oddities or caprices; by eliminating the context, their strangeness comes to dominate one’s experience of the paintings, frustrating the viewer’s attempt to establish some kind of order. The meaning of his paintings is not related to places or stories, but rather they describe a feeling. We experience and feel his images before we know what they are about, before we can establish meaning.

For Wildbach, the content of the paintings ultimately loses all importance, analogous to a psychedelic experience where the objective is to discover how to see in a different way and to lose oneself in the experience of seeing.
“The foundation of my work is wonderment, and I also steal memories that are not my own,” Wildbach commented in 2007. The painter’s empathy thus becomes public, his sources are eclectic. He condenses his broad interest in media into pictorial moments, variously staging a visual dialectic.

One of the riddles in Wildbach’s work is his position on a topic. Wildbach: “Contra, this title was a meeting of coincidence. At the moment, I am contra.” Even in his early series of paintings, it was clear what type of significance Wildbach assigned to topics in general - not as narrative elements, but much more as gateways to the viewer’s individual experience.

There are not enough general elements in Wildbach’s work to posit any particular “style”. “My paintings grow,” he says. He abandons his paintings to natural selection, speaks of a painting’s vibrations, of dark light, close distances and colors that are half as old as time itself.

Despite these anecdotes and identifications he proffers in conversation, his illusions do not correspond to reality - they are "contra”!

Bruno Wildbach, born 1964, studied art history at Karl Franzens Universität and architecture at the Technische Universität in Graz. Since 1992, he has lived and worked as an independent artist in Schwanberg.


Exhibition info
Exhibition title: contra
Artist: Bruno Wildbach
Duration: 5 July to 15 September 2010

Contact and information:
artepari contemporary art gallery
Peter-Tunner-Gasse 60, 8020 Graz, Austria
Tel. +43(0)316/89 00 92, Mobile +43(0)676/519 00 66
Email: office@artepari.com 
Web: www.artepari.com

Hours: Monday to Friday, from 14:00 to 17:00 and by appointment

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