Slawomir Elsner

Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle is pleased to present the Berlin-based artist Slawomir Elsner (*1976) in his fourth solo exhibition. In his series “Imaginäre Erinnerung (Imaginary Memory)”, which so far comprises about 150 works and is still ongoing, the artist has been focusing since 2014 on canonical works of art history, the artist has been focusing since 2014 on canonical works of art history, which he poetically reflects in a unique technique of overlapping color line mesh as colored pencil drawings on paper.
Recently, the works of his renowned “Just Watercolors” series, realized on handmade paper, have also made reference to iconic paintings, thus transcending their inherent self-referentiality based on their potentiated degree of abstraction. The complex, delicate and meticulously executed works on paper blur the boundaries between drawing and painting, being both and at the same time something entirely third. They seem not only to finally dissolve the art-historically long-standing paragone between disegno and colore, but to make it entirely obsolete. Slawomir Elsner skillfully fuses painting and drawing; he is a line painter, oscillating between coincidence and constructedness, between blur and precision. Elsner’s new exhibition is dedicated to a selection of self-portraits by the iconic Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, created between 1885 and 1889.

Furthermore, artist Raphael Weilguni will be presenting a selection of his latest artworks. The sculptures will be exhibited on the gallery’s rooftop garden.

Slawomir Elsner
Self-Portrait with Felt Hat (Selbstbildnis Filzhut), 2022
Farbstift auf Papier
41,5 x 32,4 cm
© Slawomir Elsner, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023