2yk Galerie: Quiet Apocalypse

Berlin Michael Markwicks series of pictures „Quiet Apocalypse“, which was created during the six months the artist stayed at the Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben (receipt of scholarship), depicts the collision between the urban world of life and extraterrestrial happenings. The workings mirror colours and energies of the megacity of Berlin and present landscapes of violently shifting realities. His large-sized paintings and smaller mixed-media-drawings show astronauts, that conquer the earth, burning cars and tents, and a number of other apocalyptic symbols, that express a new age of global fear and wonder. The parameters of the human body and the social symbols of safety collapse and merge in an atmosphere of the existential intimidation of the self and the community. Markwicks seemingly mythological findings of the pictures merge influences of german and dutch painting of the early 16th century (e.g. Pieter Brueghels illustration of hell) with the glaring colourful- ness and the graphic character of web design and contemporary urban elements, such as neon col- ours from road works or graffiti. Enamel coating and oil colours are painted or sprayed onto the can- vas resp. paper, sometimes leading to a skin-like character of the shade texture. Tents burn, bodies are reduced to steaming vessels, exploding forms spray luminous sparks – all earthly existence re- solves through the impact of exterior forces. What remains visible to the observer, is a highly ener- getic transformation process, which unfolds an intensity that gets under the skin because of the lucid expressive colouring of the oil paintings and the dynamic conduction of the pencil drawings’ strokes.

Curatorial Team: Martin Pfahler, Dr. Margit im Schlaa, Heidi Sill, Wolfgang Schlegel, Monika Seeberger