Where Calder, Dalí and Herold share an app!

David Czupryn ( 1983) studied in Düsseldorf under Georg Herold, Lucy McKenzie and Tomma Abts. He's a master of trompe l'oeil, the century-old art of visual deception that makes an unexpected comeback in his work. With brush and paint he creates mimetic imitations of surfaces; individual marks and gestures are thus negated in an almost provocative manner. The paintings – David Czupryn works with strong harmonic contrasts and layers of translucent paint – appear seamless, they are not photorealistic, but illusionistically three-dimensional. Arrows and other graphic elements join the quiet backgrounds, bases, and motifs suggesting -movement. In addition to extended limbs, there are -broken symmetries, falling, floating, connected, -interlaced, open and transparent parts that attract attention – images within the image, as well as -accompanying set pieces. It may come as no -surprise that the painter appreciates the Surrealists, but also expresses a certain admiration for Alfred Kubin. The mystery that he pursues, however, is not rooted in the tradition of Dark Romanticism, but -rather reminiscent of Alexander Calder and Naum Gabo, and of course also to the mischievous works by Georg Herold. David Czupryn's images can thus be understood without much ado as painted installations in which constructivism, kinetics and surrealism revel in ironic original states. Or to employ a neologism: In this case, Calder, Dalí and Herold share an app.

Exhibition: Kunsthalle Darmstadt, 27/10/2018–6/1/2019