Orsten Groom's "CHROME DINETTE" series to be exhibited at Urban Spree
- Sep 22, 2020
For their last exhibition of the year, Urban Spree Galerie invites the French painter Orsten Groom to exhibit in Berlin his new incendiary series “CHROME DINETTE”. The solo show, his first exhibition in Germany, will open on Friday, October 23rd, 2020.
While being a radically independent artist, Orsten Groom has established himself in a few years as a key player in the young French painting scene, oscillating between alternative circles and museum institutions.
His first retrospective was presented this year at the ACMCM contemporary art centre in Perpignan (France) – at only 37 years old.
The Berlin exhibition brings together over 30 works, presented in two sections:
– the Large Ensemble of 17 paintings “CHROME DINETTE” (accompanied by its proverbial Divan), a danse macabre summoning Sigmund Freud, Moses and sick poodles – under the aegis of Frank Zappa;
– A retrospective selection of Orsten Groom’s emblematic large formats, a genuine «subconscious» journey with Parietal Sarcophagus allures.
Orsten Groom’s painting is presented as “Post-Historical Cave Art”.
The famous German artist Jonathan Meese said about him: “Orsten Groom comes from the caves and the Middle Ages and keeps history alive in today’s art. He comes from the future“.
Apocalyptic Frescoes, saturated with Creatures drawn from the Memory Styx by Demented Talmudic Investigations, Carnivalesque Recapitulation of History from the Flow of Origins and Art History – His Painting roars on Large Canvases populated with Figures entangled by Mythological and Grotesque Archetypes, Danses Macabres gleaned by a Language Detective, an Amnesiac Epileptic Archaeologist. Its Material is Dense, Volcanic, inhabited like the ancient Livers of a Divinatory Ritual.
«This turmoil is similar to the one I feel in the Grottos of Lascaux or Chauvet, in front of El Greco or Picasso paintings, or, in the 20th century, facing the essential work of Gérard Gasiorowski», writes Olivier Kaeppelin, former Director of the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and curator of his recent Parisian Exhibition POMPEII MASTURBATOR.
Orsten Groom experienced in 2002 an aneurysm that left him amnesic and epileptic. He graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2009 and Le Fresnoy in 2011. He is the recipient of several awards: Prix l’art est vivant (2019), Prix de Peinture de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts (2016) and Prix de Peinture Antoine Marin (2015). The reputed paint manufacturer Marin manufactures a colour to his name, the “Pink Groom”.
He is also a musician, author of collections of English cubist poems, filmmaker (2011 Jury Prize for his film BOBOK at the festival Côté-Court) and since 2012 author of the video cycle Les Ballets Russes.
He has collaborated with curators and authors Olivier Kaeppelin and Paul Ardenne, the filmmaker Guy Maddin, the translator and poet André Markowicz, as well as the writer Boris Wolowiec.
The Opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a concert by the POODLE MHUND ARKESTRA, formed for the occasion by Orsten Groom, the Magnificent Jimmy Trash & Big Daddy Mugglestone.
Ich bin der Dreck unter deinen Walzen / Ich bin dein geheimer Schmutz Und verlorenes Metallgeld / Ich bin deine Ritze und Schlitze / Ich bin der Autor aller Felgen Und Damast Paspeln / Ich bin Eier aller Arten / Ich bin alle Tage und Nächte / Ich bin der Chrome Dinette / Und du bist mein Sofa. – Frank Zappa
CHROME DINETTE is Burning Divan, Hypnotic Sphinx and Sick Tongue of the Unpronounceable God.
ORSTEN GROOM: CHROME DINETTE
“Divan, Divan, Weisst du, Wer Ich Bin?”
23.10.2020 – 23.01.2021
Vernissage: Friday, 23.10.2020 from 18:30 in presence of the artist
Urban Spree Galerie
Revaler Str. 99
10245 Berlin
Contact, info & catalogue: Pascal Feucher (pascal@urbanspree.com)
Opening Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 14:00-18:30 and by appointment
Opens Sunday 24.10.2020 (14:00-19:00)
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/orsten_groom/
