Corinna Holthusen &
Florian Eymann

With the title "Synthèse" the Affenfaust Gallery presents a double exhibition of the French artist Florian Eymann and the Hamburg artist Corinna Holthusen.

This international cooperation shows the morbidity of our ideals of beauty and explores the border areas between artistic genres and media. Thus Eymann's paintings seem to reach the core of the person: The supposed faces of those portrayed appear distorted, sometimes ghostly or violently deformed. The oil paint, applied with brush, spatula and fingers, seems to peel out of the dark background of the picture, breaking up the physiognomy of the face beyond recognition. Sensations and psychological abysses overlay the masquerade of classical portrait painting. The fragments of a figuration can also only be imagined in his abstract still lifes.

This profound ambivalence, which deconstructs artificially created ideals, is also reflected in the works of Corinna Holthusen. Through a complex image editing process, the conceptual photographer digitally superimposes a large number of physiognomies, creating new idealized facial and body images. Using acrylic paint, spray paint, and liquid glue mixtures, Holthusen later breaks up the previous smoothness, however, giving her works a twist to the grotesque.

Corinna Holthusen and Florian Eymann have been represented by the Affenfaust Gallery for years, and have also created collaborative works especially for the "Synthèse" exhibition.