“Adrian Ghenie approaches painting like an old master, and there is very much a sense that his collages and paintings can and should be read in dialogue with the history of painting as much as with contemporary culture. As with any great painter, Ghenie’s works are as much about paint itself as about the subjects he depicts.
By means of a painterly language that ranges from the grotesque to the sublime, Ghenie navigates through the figurative and the abstract to a place that is both existential and metaphysical – a psychological and yet deeply material portrayal of the human condition in which the baggage of history weighs heavily on the shoulders of the present. Very much about personal and collective struggle, Ghenie offers a contemporary position on grand narratives familiar throughout history, of those abusing power and those abused by them, of enforced exile and migration. His works fully deserve to be recognized as the works of a young master (an accolade not lightly bestowed) – producing highly contemporary works that are the latest contribution to a long conversation between masters of the past.”
