Sławomir Elsner

Sławomir Elsner, Displaced 02, 2009

Sławomir Elsner (* 1976 in Wodzisław Śląski ) is a German-Polish artist .

Life

From 1995 to 2002 Sławomir Elsner studied fine art at the Art Academy in Kassel and in 2001 was a master class student with Norbert Radermacher . In 1999 Elsner received a study grant from the Cusanuswerk . His works are in the collection of the Deutsche Börse Frankfurt a. M., in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden , in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München , in the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art (North Carolina, US), in the Rubell Family Collection (US), in the me Collectors Room Berlin, in the Museen Böttcherstraße ( Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum and Ludwig Roselius Museum ) and in the Märkisches Museum in Witten .

Sławomir Elsner lives and works in Berlin.

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In his work Elsner deals with the effect of different media and the stories they tell. He questions the representational character of pictures and encourages the viewer to critically examine his own viewing experiences. In doing so, he always investigates the question of whether images reflect reality or deform it.

Photographs

In 1999 he created a twenty-part photo series “Sławomir”, for each of which he took on different jobs for the moment it was taken. Each production took place in an authentic environment. The small-format, framed photos look like souvenir pictures that are traditionally considered proof of identity and belonging to a group.

In the seven-part photographic series “Wedding Photo” (2002), a festively dressed family served seven different bridal couples as a backdrop. The couple shared the intimate moment of the first admission as a married couple with a completely strange family. However, this inner dissonance was not visible, at some point one even believed to see similarity in facial features.

Drawings and painting

Slawomir Elsner, colored pencil drawing Lady in White (after Titian), 2016

Elsner is internationally known for his naturalistic painting and his abstract watercolors. Above all, however, he is famous for his virtuoso colored drawings. His technique of colored pencil drawing is as fascinating as it is unique, and Elsner uses it in an innovative way to create paintings. Typical works by him in this technique are the extraordinary, confusing, blurry-looking, but sharply drawn with colored pencils adaptations of famous pictures from art history. Photographs usually serve as the basis for his drawings and paintings. His first large group of works “Untitled” from 2004 was created after the photographs in which he documented Poland, which was changing after the end of socialism: the inhabitants embellished the cityscape, which was dominated by concrete gray, with bright colors. Elsner transferred these interventions in the urban-suburban living space onto canvas with the help of painting and showed both the comforting and symbolic joy of color, as well as the absurdity and superficiality of such decoration in relation to the architectural form.

Sławomir Elsner, Untitled 22, 2004

For his abstract watercolor works, such as the "Just Watercolors" series from 2015, the artist applies up to one hundred monochrome layers. The only thing that he controls is the time between the application of the layers and the relationship between water and color: “The rest happens by itself. The structures do not arise because I paint them, but because the colors and the paper form a connection with each other. "

Sławomir Elsner mostly works in series. The individual subjects make use of a wide range. Many groups of works deal with unpleasant, terrible, not well-attended subjects, which he allows the viewer to look at with "enjoyment" through a clever aestheticization in painting or drawing.

Slawomir Elsner, Just Watercolors (22), 2017

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Sławomir Elsner, Old Street 2, 2005

2020: Coverboy , Galerie Gebrüder Lehmann, Dresden
2018: Uneven (with Stephan Balkenhol), Galerie Coucou, Kassel
2018: Slawomir Elsner: The Bishop Portrait , Dreikönigskirche (Dresden)
2018: Equinox (with Uwe Wittwer) , Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn
2017: Cranach² , Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum + Ludwig Roselius Museum, Böttcherstraße museums, Bremen
2017: Narcissus and Echo , Lullin + Ferrari, Zurich
2016: The Girl with the Fan , Coucou Gallery, Kassel
2016: Two things fill the mind , Clement & Schneider, Bonn
2016: Copper-Silver-Gold , Gallery Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden
2015: Nothing is what it seems , Hospitalhof, Stuttgart
2014: Framed , Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin
2014: Duet , Galerie Haas, Zurich
2014: Muse , CCA Andratx, Mallorca (with Bernhard Brungs)
2013: Pano-Rama , Rondo Sztuki, Kattowicze
2012: Séances , Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin
2012: Color pencil drawings , Künstlerhaus Bethanien , Berlin
2011: Collecting Images , Marc Jancou Contemporary, New York
2011: Slawomir Elsner , Hussenot Gallery, Paris
2011: Painting / drawing , Marburger Kunstverein , Marburg
2010: Paris-Berlin-Warszawa , Polish Institute, Berlin
2010: Invisible , Kunsthalle Krems / Factory, Krems
2009: Trans-Location , Gallery Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden
2008: Young Talent , Art Brussels, Brussels
2008: Windows on the World , Galerie Johnen, Berlin
2008: Night After Night , Marc Jancou Contemporary, New York
2007: deux couleurs , Sutton Lane c / o Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris
2007: Las Golden , Gallery Raster, Warsaw
2006: Between the gates , Museum Dhont-Daenens, Deurle
2006: Panorama , Sutton Lane, London
2005: Schöne Aussicht , Johnen + Schöttle, Cologne
2004: Goscinna , Gallery Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden

Sławomir Elsner, Populaire 13, 2011

Slawomir Elsner, Windows on the World, No. 11, 2010

Group exhibitions (selection)

2020: The Second Me , Galerie Renate Kammer, Hamburg
2019: POSTCARD RELOADED , European Art Association and Art Space Potsdam c / o Waschhaus
2019: comeback. Art historical renaissance in contemporary art , Kunsthalle, Tübingen
2019: Rembrandts Line , Kupferstich-Kabinett , Staatliche Kunstsammlungen , Dresden
2019: FEELING CALLED LOVE. Collection of an Idiot , Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum
2018: Painting Still Alive , Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej, Toruń, Poland
2018: Duo Show , Galerie Feldbusch Wiesner Rudolph, Berlin
2018: And What About Your Good Morning, New World? Kassel Dokfest as Guest , SIMA / CCA, Hangzhou, China
2018: DARK WAS THE NIGHT. Works from the Artists-in-Residence , CCA, Andratx, Mallorca
2018: Redystrybucja , Galeria Duża Scena UAP, Poznan
2017: doing identity , The Reydan Weiss Collection, Art Museum, Bochum
2017: Frank, dramaturgy: Tulga Beyerle , Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden
2017: sleep. A productive waste of time , Böttcherstraße museums, Bremen
2017: MISSING The tower of the blue horses by Franz Marc , Pinakothek der Moderne, State Graphic Collection, Munich
2016: Life on earth? / David Bowie , Rondo Sztuki, Katowice
2016: I prefer life, Reydan Weiss collection , Weserburg, Museum of Modern Art, Bremen
2016: Berlin train station , CCA, Andratx, Mallorca
2015: Falling Fictions , me Collectors Room, Berlin
2015: Kolekcja dra Wernera Jerke. Wybór , Atlas Sztuki, Łódź
2014: A Private View presents: The ROCCA Foundation , Autocenter, Berlin
2014: People become essential , KV Friends of Current Art, Zwickau
2013: Migrations / Creations , Emigration Museum, Gdynia
2013: Landscape after 2000 , Kunsthalle, Osnabrück
2013: BrandSchutz // Mentalities of intolerance , Romantikerhaus, Jena
2012: The future lasts forever , Interalia, Seoul
2011: 3348 and 1 night. 13 years young art in Essen , Folkwang Museum, Essen
2011: Role Models - Role Play , Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg
2011: East Ex East , Brand New Gallery, Milan
2011: Phantoms , Uferhallen, Berlin
2010: Erodere , Märkisches Museum Witten, Witten
2010: Passions Fruits picked from the Olbricht Collection , me Collectors Room Berlin
2010: The little improvisation. Polish Art Today , Stadtgalerie Kiel
2009: Slawomir Elsner, Joanna M. Wezyk, Martin Mannig, Kukje Gallery, Seoul
2009: 3rd Photo Festival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg
2009: We Berliners , Märkisches Museum, Berlin
2009: Gala , Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig
2008: Red Eye Effet / Efekt czerwonych oczu… , Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
2008: Go for it !, Olbricht Collection (a sequel) , Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
2008: Comme des Bêtes , Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
2007: Back to the figure. Contemporary painting , Kunst Haus Wien
2007: Terug naar de figuur , Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam
2007: Very Abstract And Hyper Figurative , Thomas Dane Gallery, London
2007: Freshly painted. Painting from the Willi Michel collection , Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf
2007: Made in Germany , Sprengel Museum, Kestnergesellschaft, Kunstverein, Hanover
2006: This Land is My Land , NGBK, Berlin
2006: Sculpture, installation, painting from Poland , Kunstverein Nürnberg
2006: Sculpture, installation, painting from Poland , Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld
2006: painting. Collection and new purchases , Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
2005: Poles Apart , Rubell Family Collection, Miami
2005: YES YES YES YES. Difference and repetition in pictures from the Olbricht Collection , Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen

Publications (individual catalogs)

2017 Cranach² , Text: Frank Schmidt, Ed .: Frank Schmidt, Museen Böttcherstraße ( Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum , Ludwig Roselius Museum ) Bremen
2017 Tatjana Doll, Slawomir Elsner missing. The tower of the blue horses by Franz Marc. Contemporary artists in search of a lost masterpiece, text: Katja Blomberg, Michael Hering, Hortensia Völckers, Alexander Farenholtz, Christian Welzbacher, Stefan Koldehoff, ed .: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König
2014 Duet (Slawomir Elsner & Francis Picabia) Text: Jean-Christophe Ammann , Ed .: Galerie Haas, Zurich
2012 colored pencil drawings , text: Natalie de Ligt , Chris Lünsmann, Karin Pernegger, Dr. Esther Ruelfs, Raimar Stange, Christoph Tannert, ed .: Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH, Berlin ISBN 978-3-941230-17-0
2008 Slawomir Elsner, Panorama , text: Łukasz Gorczyca, ed .: Galerie Gebr. Lehmann and Dumont ISBN 978-3-8321-9098-9
2005 Slawomir Elsner , text: Lukasz Gorczyca u. Tan Morben, Ed .: Kunsthaus Essen / Rotary Clubs Essen ISBN 978-3-931201-23-4

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Paulina Dylewicz: Slawomir Elsner. Nothing is as it seems . Ed .: Hospitalhof Stuttgart. Stuttgart 2015, p. 4 .
↑ Jean Christophe Ammann: On closer inspection . Ed .: Westend Verlag. Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-938060-21-6 , pp. 296 .
↑ cf. Lukasz Gorczyca: Forms and Uniforms . In: Kunsthaus Essen / Rotary Clubs Essen (ed.): Slawomir Elsner . Essen 2005, ISBN 978-3-931201-23-4 , pp. 72 .
^ Exhibition "Slawomir Elsner - Drawing as Painting". Retrieved June 12, 2018 .
^ Jean Christophe Ammann: Slawomir Elsner and Francis Picabia . In: galerie Haas (ed.): Slawomir Elsner. Duet . Zurich 2014.
↑ Martin Engler: Slawomir Elsner . In: estnergesellschaft, Kunstverein Hannover, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hantje Cantz Verlag (ed.): Made in Germany. Current art from Germany . Hannover 2007, ISBN 978-3-7757-1985-8 , pp. 344 .

personal data
SURNAME	Elsner, Sławomir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-Polish artist
DATE OF BIRTH	1976
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wodzisław Śląski

[1] Paulina Dylewicz: Slawomir Elsner. Nothing is as it seems . Ed .: Hospitalhof Stuttgart. Stuttgart 2015, p. 4 .

[2] Jean Christophe Ammann: On closer inspection . Ed .: Westend Verlag. Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-938060-21-6 , pp. 296 .

[3] . Lukasz Gorczyca: Forms and Uniforms . In: Kunsthaus Essen / Rotary Clubs Essen (ed.): Slawomir Elsner . Essen 2005, ISBN 978-3-931201-23-4 , pp. 72 .

[4] Exhibition "Slawomir Elsner - Drawing as Painting". Retrieved June 12, 2018 .

[5] Jean Christophe Ammann: Slawomir Elsner and Francis Picabia . In: galerie Haas (ed.): Slawomir Elsner. Duet . Zurich 2014.

[6] Martin Engler: Slawomir Elsner . In: estnergesellschaft, Kunstverein Hannover, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hantje Cantz Verlag (ed.): Made in Germany. Current art from Germany . Hannover 2007, ISBN 978-3-7757-1985-8 , pp. 344 .