Arno Beck
05.09.2025 - 25.10.2025
Down the Habit Hole
Schierke Seinecke
In his latest series of works, Arno Beck presents for the first time a series of large-format acrylic paintings on canvas that are stylistically based on the tradition of woodcuts. However, instead of historical content or religious allegories, we encounter supposedly familiar pictorial worlds which, on closer inspection, are humorously broken up and contextually reassembled. Beck transfers the classic woodcut aesthetic into the here and now by applying it to large-format canvases using the airbrush technique.
He sprays the motifs directly into the still damp primer on a white-yellowish image carrier, creating an effect reminiscent of yellowed, old paper. At the same time, the slightly blurred lines create an image effect reminiscent of greatly enlarged JPEGs - a deliberate reference to digital image culture and internet aesthetics. Each image is accompanied by a caption that adds an additional layer to the work. These sentences, sometimes in German, sometimes in English, are reminiscent of classic proverbs, but are always twisted in an amusing and absurd way. We don't encounter a raised index finger here, but a subtle wink.
The texts have a clear meme aesthetic and make the logic of internet-based forms of communication their own - short, to the point, ironic. What at first glance appears to be a nostalgic idyll or naïve depiction turns out, on closer inspection, to be a clever commentary on the art market, on the production of art and on being an artist itself. Beck parodies the mechanisms of the creative industry, poses questions about the value of originality and reflects the absurd simultaneity of exhaustion and self-marketing, creation and simulation with a keen sense of the zeitgeist.
With this series, Arno Beck succeeds in creating a charming link between old prints and contemporary visual culture - a bridge between the Renaissance and the digital age, between meme and museum, between studio and algorithm.
Schierke Seinecke
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