Opening: Thursday, November 10, 7-9 pm Exhibition: November 11 - December 20, 2011
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Peter Riss at the gallery. The artist has studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf with Prof. Gerhard Merz. He lives and works in Munich. The exhibition offers an in depth insight into his elaborate installations.
Peter Riss' paintings, wooden works and installations are distinguished by an almost excessive aestheticism: glassy lacquer surfaces reflecting the environment (including the viewers) as well as golden skeletons, animal bones and fawns are all part of Peter Riss’ imagery. At first glance this kind of aesthetic might seem rather self-indulgent and vain, but, it is precisely in the moment of embracing vanity that beauty reveals its inherent self-destruction. In an almost Dorian-Gray-like-manner Peter Riss unmasks the Apollonian beauty by carving images of despair and loneliness into those glossy lacquer surfaces. One might be reminded of the infamous Apollo and Marsyas myth: The satyr Marsyas dared to challenge the god Apollo, claiming that he could play the flute better; Apollo accepted and ultimately won, punishing Marysas by skinning him.
This myth perfectly interlaces the dualistic concept of Apollonian beauty and purity and the Dionysian destructive forces that can be found throughout Riss’ works: chaotic organic forms collide with stern cubist lines, algid abstraction collides with exuberant figuration. By moving between those two poles, Riss constitutes his very own artistic vision. Stylistically the viewer may be reminded of the works of Mondrian or even traditional Japanese architecture, as Peter Riss employs a similar way of structuring his space determining installation.
Peter Riss creates a very unique experience within the rooms of our gallery, somehow entrapping the viewer between conflicting aesthetics (organic forms – cubist forms) and philosophies (Apollonian concept of culture: the overarching structure of the installation and the glossy materiality – Dionysian chaos of nature: the bones and carvings).
In the spirit of Nietzsches art theory, the work of Peter Riss is a dialectical one: “between (the) real truth of nature (Dionysian) and the lie of culture (Apollonian) that poses as if it were the only reality that is similar to that between the eternal core of things, the thing-in-itself, and the whole world of appearances” (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, 1872)
Riss reveals in his work a society desperately trying to overcome nature and yet nature cannot be denied and makes itself apparent through crude bones or imperfections on the glossy surfaces.
For this exhibition, Mr. Riss has created a limited edition sculpture that will be on view at the gallery on the opening night.
For more information, please contact the gallery at +49 89 388 59240 or info @ andreasgrimmgallery.com.
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN Tuerkenstrasse 11 80333 Muenchen T +49 89 38 85 92 40 F +49 89 38 85 92 41 Tuesday – Friday 1 – 6 PM Saturday 11 AM – 2 PM
