Wilhelm Sasnal Paintings

Hauser & Wirth and Qiao Space are pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal, taking place at Qiao Space 2555 in Shanghai’s Xhui District, for the duration of West Bund Art & Design Fair 2015.

Drawing on found images from newspapers and magazines, the Internet, billboards or his personal surroundings, Sasnal’s paintings act as an archive to the mass of sprawling images that flood contemporary society. The diversity of Sasnal’s subject matter goes hand in hand with his use of different painting styles from across the 20th century.

At Qiao Space, Sasnal will show a selection of paintings dating between 2008 and 2015. The subjects of the works hover between personal nostalgia and the profane: a sunset, a bouquet of lilacs, a broadcasting tower or the view onto a dark stage at a concert. The artist’s consistent use of a muted colour palette and the sense of distance he creates between viewer and motif lend the works an unsettling quality. The motif and titles of Sasnal’s paintings such as ‘Architect’ (2015), guide our interpretation but the remaining narrative is withheld. The viewer is left with a feeling of scattered recognition, and must use representation and memory to fully decipher the snapshot that has been presented.

In ‘Architect’ (2015), Sasnal has used a found image of architect Christian Kerez. Looking at the painting, the viewer sees the silhouette of a man sitting at a desk, his hands are folded below his chin, his elbows rest on the tabletop next to neatly arranged objects; his pose is one of silent contemplation. The title of the painting alludes to the profession of the figure, but little else hints to the fact that we are looking at Kerez, the Swiss architect caught in the middle of the ongoing rift about a new design for Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art. The political nature of this work is in great contrast to the banality of ‘Bathroom’ (2015), in which the contours of a person taking a photo, with what appears to be a mobile phone, is seen in front of a blue background. ‘A Father and a Baby’ (2010) shows a father proudly holding his child; it feels as if it has been lifted from a family photo album. The eclecticism of Sasnal’s subject matter and source material implies that even the most incongruous things are connected. Shown together, these paintings reveal Sasnal’s fascination for the unexpected stories and details in society’s shared surroundings.

Born in 1972 in Tarnow, Poland, Wilhelm Sasnal lives and works in Cracow. His paintings and film and video works have been featured in various international group exhibitions as well as numerous solo exhibitions, including Hauser & Wirth Zurich (2013); Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2012); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England (2011); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany (2009); the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2006); and CAC – Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Malaga, Spain (2009), which subsequently toured to the Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2010). In 2006 he received the prestigious Vincent van Gogh Award.