People, ghosts and trannies: Stephan Conrady (left) and Michael Hofstetter present their painterly-philosophical dialogue in the gallery of the Kunstverein.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
It is common to say that artists are quite headstrong. In general, but especially in relation to their work. In art they turn their inside out to a certain extent – nothing should be left to chance or even inexperienced hands. At the Ebersberger Kunstverein, however, two artists who have curated each other are now exhibiting. In other words: One has chosen the other’s works. Stephan Conrady and Michael Hofstetter enter into an extremely intensive dialogue with one another. They already kept it that way in 2018 in the Neue Galerie Landshut, “but we’ve become a bit softer, less strict,” says Hofstetter and smiles at Conrady.
Hofstetter works, among other things, with portraits of women, scribbled over and over with ballpoint pens.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
The people of Munich titled their joint show with the small but telling syllable “trans”, because it should be about all possible transitions and transgressions. First of all, then, the “Transgression of the Autonomous Artist’s Ego to a Collaborator”. Conrady and Hofstetter have known each other for decades; they studied painting together at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in the late 1980s. Conrady with Rudi Tröger, Hofstetter with Gerd Winner. To this day, they see themselves as accomplices, both of whom have committed themselves to fundamental questioning of art and the world in their works. What is painting And what determines our being? Where are the tipping moments?
Because they are headstrong after all, these two men, in their deeply philosophical questioning. Apparent certainties such as genres, styles, techniques, genders or values - beauty, for example: Everything is put to the test here, especially the “edges” are often looked at. Hofstetter and Conrady do not proclaim truths, but manage to tirelessly hold on to the question. This balancing act even has an effect on the creative process itself: there is no such thing as having to deal with something, the works of both artists are potentially always works in progress. “You even have to take the pictures away from him at some point, otherwise they will look completely different the next day,” says Hofstetter of his colleague.
Hofstetter’s works are also created from leftovers, to which he adds overpainting, for example.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
It is not the aim of these two artists to do their work in a masterly manner. “For us it was more about bad painting,” says Hofstetter. So the idea of using a bad, incorrect or even repulsive painting to ultimately expand the possibilities of the medium. This experimental set-up has been common to Conrady and Hofstetter since they were together at the academy. The exhibition also offers exciting contrasts, mainly because the two artists tackle human existence on opposing paths: Stephan Conrady is working on an iconographic utopia, Michael Hofstetter creates dystopian collages that are primarily “ours.” Dehousing through the media “should symbolize. Keyword: flood of images.
To do this, Hofstetter says he only works with waste. For example, he fished his “Edition ego design” from the rubbish of a repro studio: portraits of women like those found in fashion magazines, scribbled over and over with ballpoint pens. There are commands like: “reduce large pores”, “remove eye wrinkles”, “more eyelashes”, “straighten your lip”. The artist has nothing to add to this. Other works are created from Hofstetter’s own leftovers, from leftover stencils, newspaper clippings, photographs, sketches, and notes. He rearranges all of this and adds overpainting or screen printing. In this way he shows the viewer his longings, especially the lower sexual instincts, devaluing what is apparently precious, enhancing what is apparently irrelevant. Hofstetter uses gold and silver pencils to paint his scraps of paper and gives them titles such as “Pissende Engel” or “Fick”. His “Shemales”, creatures with breasts and a penis, are also recurring, so transition here as well. It is exciting that Hofstetter’s drawings are not “finished”, but rather show the transitions from the idea to the realization of his various exhibition projects. Anyone who wants to understand how Hofstetter’s sculptures and objects are created can refer to the book “Recto Verso”, which works like a kind of index: It reveals which works were created from which sketches. A search for traces in the cosmos of this versatile artist.
Conrady limits himself to the motif “people in one area”.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Conrady, on the other hand, restricts himself in this exhibition to a motif that has accompanied him for a long time, the overarching title: “People in one area”. The pictures show a kind of paradisiacal, stage-like clod, a piece of primeval ground in nowhere, on which there are mostly three people, a man, a woman, a child. Behind it, fine lines that cross at right angles and are reminiscent of ship masts, usually one or two clouds float above them. A kind of ontological ideal model with which Conrady experiments, exploring the limits of painting in ever new variants and formats, especially through reduction. Often it is limited to white and black, sometimes colored dots or boxes are added. Sometimes you can feel the pleasure in the figure, sometimes the people are rather roughly executed or even completely disappeared. “Every picture is different,” says Conrady, “and I still see possibilities”.
“Trans”: Exhibition by Stephan Conrady and Michael Hofstetter in the Alte Brennerei, Klosterbauhof Ebersberg, opening on Friday, October 15, at 7 pm. On view until November 7th, Friday 6pm to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 2pm to 6pm.