TORSTEN SOLIN / STRANGE ANIMALS / January 9th – February 14th, 2009

Exhibition views (please click on the image to enlarge):

(Photos: Uwe Walter)

Torsten Solin loves contradictions. His work plays with dualisms whose composition rise from the unconscious. In search of the true nature of things, Solin grounds his art in opposites that seem contradictory only on the surface. The contrasts reveal an inner essence, but only when they are understood within a dialectical process as a device.

In his exhibition “STRANGE ANIMALS“, Solin combines sculptures and photorealistic paintings in an installation that links to a fantastic world. Set in a gray environment, similar to the space of a three-dimensional computer world, the artworks open windows to the subjectivity of the artist. But since subjectivity is only a complex reaction, it cannot be understood entirely separate from the material world in which it is based. As a result, the interaction between inner and outside world becomes universal and is forced upon the artist as well as the viewer.

Solin's sculptures materialize varying psychological states. The artist, as a teddy bear locked in the cute and cuddly body of a children's toy, shows only his face, whose eyes give a sometimes longing, sometimes skeptical or quizzical gaze. The feeling of being trapped and of being incapable to act against human nature raises the question of a free will among people. Are we any more than a plaything of biological determinism?

Solin's extremely naturalistic paintings hark back to life's inherent duplicity. The viewer is lured by naked women into surreal compositions but then becomes both flustered and irritated by the women's erotic presence and immaculate beauty. The line between reality and illusion blurs.

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Opening documented by the Berlin Artcontacter:
www.berlinerkunstkontakter.de