ÉLÉGIES – Berlin

HVW8 Berlin is pleased to present ‘Élégies’, a solo show by Berlin-based artist Sebastian Haslauer. The exhibition compiles painting, collage, cartoon, found objects and poetry, produced as a stretching exercise during the artist’s lengthy marathon of painting. As the title hints, Haslauer offers a lament to the 21st Century, contemplating the visual saturation of the digital world and the content of modern mass media. He is inspired by the melancholy in the work of Ovid, Goethe and Schiller–‘Élégies’ presents a similar sentimentality, but this becomes satirised through the artist’s distortion of contemporary found imagery and playful, non-figurative forms. By removing visual material from its original context, Haslauer teases us with ambiguous social and political narratives, undermining the desire to follow the status quo.

As a maker of art and illustration and everything in between, Haslauer proves a challenge to categorise. His ‘Élégies’ are characterised by instinct and abstraction, layering motifs and materials to create visual representations of our confused reactions to current affairs. His emotive but ironic artistic approach conveys the attitude of Berlin bluntness and honesty–Haslauer comments that in these works, a fleeting thought is visualised as a complete work of art. Haslauer also toys with the tendency of scrolling through topical material, compiling unrelated and unfiltered material from everyday life into a new, offbeat interpretation of the zeitgeist. ‘Élégies’ is a visual and conceptual cut-up of the daily, medial noise.

Alongside creating fine art projects, Haslauer produces illustrations on a freelance basis for magazines including NEON, Cicero, Dummy, Süddeutsche Zeitung and the SZ-Magazin. He has created work through scholarships with various studios in Argentina, Italy, Spain and Germany, where he has dedicated himself predominantly to the medium of paint. With a background in Communication Design, Haslauer has also worked with HORT (formerly Eikes Grafischer Hort) and Lodown Magazine. This influence of exploring graphic media can be perceived in his work exhibited at HVW8 Berlin.

with support from adidas Originals

Gallery & media contact
HVW8 Gallery Berlin
Linienstraße 161
10115 Berlin

Jenne Grabowski
Gallery Manager
+49(0)179 – 488 1004
jenne@hvw8.com