Adrian Ghenie: The Fear of Now

New oil paintings and charcoal drawings fusing autobiographical reverie and histories of trauma

Romanian-born, Berlin-based painter Adrian Ghenie (born 1977) merges art historical and contemporary cultural references--the art of Otto Dix and Philip Guston fused with the hybrid, monstrous aliens in the animated series Rick and Morty, for example. The Fear of Now follows this method, interrogating the intrusive influence of technology on everyday life while experimenting with technical processes that evoke both the heavily lined figures of Egon Schiele as well as the sensuality of the Baroque greats.
This catalog presents this new body of oil paintings alongside their corresponding charcoal preparatory drawings. Contorted, amorphous self-portraits rendered in dusky pink, taupe, gray and blue share space with six large-scale paintings of Marilyn Monroe that reconceive Warhol's iconic silkscreen prints. An interview between the artist and curator Nicholas Cullinan also features.