Elmar Lause

In his solo exhibition "Drip Drop", Elmar Lause presents new works from his "Drip Paintings'' series. The series, painted with acrylic on wood, shows people whose faces are ghostly dissolved by overpainting. To create them, Lause first transfers the faded, ochre-coloured photo portraits collected at flea markets onto a wooden background and then paints over them with bright (rainbow) colors. This extreme contrast is primarily visible through the color and the change from photo realistic to abstract, but also on a thematic level: the bold color running in drops breaks with the conventional, rigid effect of the initial portrait, so that the color can also be interpreted as the soul or emotional or mental world of the respective person (and gives them drip). This effect is complemented by small breaks that Lause adds to his paintings in the form of toy elements.

The Hamburg artist Elmar Lause is known for his fantastic, bizarre and absurd productions. In his grotesque sculptures, assemblages and portraits, Lause's greatest fascination is the face. He plays with varying degrees of alienation and creates bizarre creatures in the process. Different facets of our reality are often superimposed in his works, combining the past, the timeless and the contemporary.