GOYA DEEP / GOYA FLAT
ROBERT KRAISS
ROBERT KRAISS
GOYA DEEP / GOYA FLAT
JULY 13 - AUGUST 23, 2023
Characterized by an experimental approach to drawing using a wide range of art-historical references, styles, and subject matter, the art of Robert Kraiss is imbued with contradictions. With a general skepticism towards his chosen content, the works in Goya Deep / Goya Flat draw from a vast repertoire of images culled from iconographic masterworks, trashy pulp magazines and superhero comic books in a creative exchange that simultaneously moves between ironic distancing and reverence.
The artist's method of engaging with both high and low subject matter to serve as a catalyst for experimentation finds its roots in the work of postwar German artists, such as Sigmar Polke, whose radical departure from traditional art materials draws parallels to Kraiss' innovative mechanical drawing processes. The artist employs various distancing techniques -- rotary power sanders, colored pencils attached to hand-held drills -- which recall the repetitive nature of commercial production and question the notion of individuality implicit in the medium of drawing (recently, the artist has begun pushing these notions of authorship with the "use" of assistants for drawing.) Ironically, these deliberately automated processes result in a panorama of colored marks that are highly individualistic, expressive and strikingly delicate.
This reliance on experimentation and improvisational method also play a central role in the artist's musical compositions that accompany this exhibition. Often in collaboration with other artists or musicians, Kraiss' use of synthesized and computer generated noise combined with traditional and unconventional musical instruments are important to the artist's practice. Kraiss states that his explorations into sound are a "clear reference to maybe my most central source of inspiration, and probably the most important." This singular methodology, employed across very different mediums, are a result of Kraiss' fascination with a kind of mechanized poeticism, and a considered interplay between automation and authenticity.
Robert Kraiss, UNTITLED (THE DUEL I SERIES, LEONOR FINI & CLOVIS TROUILLE), 2018, colored pencil on paper, 10 1/4 x 14 in, 26 x 35.5 cm
Robert Kraiss, UNTITLED (MELANCHOLY), 2021, pencil, colored pencil on paper, 100 1/2 x 74 3/4 in, 255 x 190 cm
Robert Kraiss, Untitled (Portrait), 2022, colored pencil on paper, 13 3/4 x 10 1/4 in (35 x 26 cm)
Robert Kraiss, Untitled (Neon Goya I), 2022, day-glow watercolor on paper, 13 3/4 x 10 1/4 in (35 x 26 cm)
VACATION (TRIMMED)
2021 © DIE BÄUME & STEFANIE POPP
Collaborative music video by Stefanie Popp & Die Bäume (Robert Kraiss & Florian Gass)
Robert Kraiss, Untitled Self Portrait as Gilbert and George), 2019, colored pencil, acrylic on paper, 102 1/4 x 78 3/4 in (260 x 200 cm)
Robert Kraiss, Untitled (Bee Swarm), 2022, colored pencil on paper, 10 1/4 x 13 3/4 in (26 x 35 cm)
DIE BÄUME: LIVE PERFORMANCE AT KUNSTVEREIN SCHWERIN
2021 © DIE BÄUME & KUNSTVEREIN SCHWERIN
Die Bäume (Florian Gass & Robert Kraiss)
18 SEPT 2021, Cologne
KUNSTVEREIN FÜR MECKLENBURG UND VORPOMMERIN IN SCHWERIN
[ART ASSOCIATION FOR MECKLENBURG AND POMERANIA IN SCHWERIN]
Robert Kraiss, Untitled (Alice in Daily Routine / Alice in Wonderland II), 2019, colored pencil on paper, 102 1/4 x 78 3/4 in (260 x 200 cm)
DIE BÄUME: ROBERT KRAISS & FLORIAN GASS
The Cologne band DIE BÄUME are a meeting of opposites. Since 1994, the psychiatrist and pain doctor Florian Gass and artist Robert Kraiss have been meeting weekly for recording sessions. Their music is based on non-competence-centred improvisation, with touch points to noise, punk and traditional ethnic music. It's a free approach. An attempt to explore extremes; experimental unprotected exposure. In the course of the musical work, there is a mixture of ironically commented ethno-kitsch and 'authentic' world music up to a primitive synthesis or as Stefanie Popp writes: "...from the surging feeling of the bloodstream in the veins or perhaps the digestion in the intestine. Singing from deep inside. Like the unconscious that has become sound. Or the free-flowing inner pulp."
STEFANIE POPP: FOLK SONG
2017 © DIE BÄUME & STEFANIE POPP
FOOLSCLOWNS
2017 © DIE BÄUME & STEFANIE POPP
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Robert Kraiss creates dense, labor-intensive drawings that dissolve before our eyes and then reemerge in a psychedelic spectrum of color. The artist's spontaneous mark-making and physical process brings his mythological imagery to the brink of destruction. The selection of works pictured in Goya Deep / Goya Flat are culled from several of the artist's series, illustrating his diverse influences and propensity towards creative experimentation.
Robert Kraiss studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Georg Herold (master class student) and Oswald Wiener from 2000-2006. His work has been featured in exhibitions across Europe, including solo exhibitions at Tobias Hantmann Studio, Berlin; Norbert Arns Gallery, Cologne; Desaga Gallery, Cologne; and Kilchmann Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland. Kraiss has been awarded grants by the Stiftung Kunstfonds Foundation, the Rheinlande and Westfalen Art Association, and the Friends of Düsseldorf Art Academy. He frequently lecutures on experimental drawing and recently completed a substitute professorship at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Halle Germany.
Robert Kraiss working on a basket sculpture in the artist's studio, Cologne, Germany.