GALERIE DROSTE X JMES
TEMPELHOFER UFER 17
10963 BERLIN, GERMANY
When Roy Lichtenstein exhibited his oil-painting Look Mickey at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York in 1962, it marked not only the artist's international breakthrough, but also the official entry of comic adaptations into contemporary painting. Although other artists had already incorporated comic quotations into their work since the late 1950s, Lichtenstein's depiction of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck was a milestone in Pop Art history. It was the criticism of the superficiality and self-righteousness of American society that was made visible precisely through this banal, uncompromising transfer of pop-cultural quotations into the visual arts. An artistic approach that many of the Pop Art artists adopted. As a demarcation from intellectualized American Expressionism and in times of increasing technologization, they attempted to fuse art and life with each other and to implicify the claim of the art traditions handed down.
The Dutch painter Stefan Thelen (*1981), better known under his artist's name Super A, belongs to a generation of artists who benefit from this piece-wise liberation of Pop Art. As a trained poster painter and artist trained in the tradition of the old Dutch, realistic oil painting, Super A was certainly aware of the complex discourse discussed above. However, as a Graffiti Writer active on the side, Super A moved from the very beginning of his work between the worlds of subcultural art, art that is distinct from the rules of the operating system art, visual art, but also art that served the popular advertising market. And it was Mickey and Donald who mark the first paintings of Super A's now everywhere recognizable TRAPPED SERIES in 2017. The artists new solo exhibition, titled THROUGH THE FACADE, will feature new large-scale canvas works, as well as sculptures, that will once again showcase the artist's interdisciplinary abilities and take visitors on a journey of Super A's universe.
There will be three special releases on the opening day and the artist will be present.