Adrian Ghenie

Ghenie, born in 1977 in Baia Mare, grapples with haunting and historical subjects. His alternately lush and vigorous style has earned him comparisons to Francis Bacon, although Ghenie says: “Despite people[‘s] belief Bacon was never a direct source of inspiration for me....At this point in my career, I do what I always did—I steal from everybody”

Ghenie might be saying that nothing is ever really lost, and that ends and beginnings, “inaugurations” and “epochal shifts,” repurpose the same scabrous, oily fragments…

"There is distinct figuration in my painting. The reasons why I'm a figurative artist and I'm not really abstract are more emotional and are to do with how I relate myself to traditional figurative painting."

The relationship between subject and style, or form and content, is integral to Adrian Ghenie’s 10 oils on canvas at Nicodim Gallery. Based in Berlin, the Romanian artist paints portraits: small close-ups of men’s heads and large landscapes, each populated by a solitary individual. In terms of subject matter, Ghenie’s paintings are all about alienation and the angst that accompanies it.