Friday, November 17, 2023

Dennis Scholl's Enigmatic and Multilayered World of Art


Dennis Scholl is a German artist known for his unique style and ability to create thought-provoking pieces that leave a lasting impression on the viewer. He takes viewers into an enigmatic, multilayered world where the onlooker meets characters that are both strange and stunning. They will never fully comprehend what they see, there is always a moment of confusion, a feeling that they have only scratched the surface of the story being told.

The focus in Scholl’s drawings is always placed on the human figure. The protagonists of his works are sometimes references to literary or historical characters, but they are usually fictional. The world in which the characters are presented, move, meet, fight, and love, changes from drawing to drawing, each time becoming more complex. Over the years, the drawings’ formats have grown larger, until its protagonists became life-sized. In 2015, the artist carefully introduced colour into his work, moving from red chalk to pastels to crayons, giving it an entirely new dimension.


"The work of Dennis Scholl is set in an idiosyncratic space in which a multitude of protagonists meet. In this constantly evolving world that becomes more complex with each new depiction, connections are being made between the ritualistic and the enigmatic. His images move between brutality and beauty, between violence and tenderness. The artist stages his figures as offerings, repeatedly drawing on Christian pictorial traditions and the tension between openness, vulnerability and protection. Scholl explores the psyche of his protagonists in a sensitive and delicate way as he broaches on the turn to the non-human, embraces porous identities and explores the rituals of giving." – Text by Nicola E. Petek


Visit dennisscholl.com. A selection of work is currently in the viewing room at M+B in Milan. The limited display of works preface Scholl’s 2024 solo exhibition with the gallery M+B  in Los Angeles.

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