PIFO Gallery is pleased to present artist Enrico Bach’s solo exhibition "100/100" from 20 August to 17 September 2022. The exhibition is curated by Fang Zhiling. This is the third solo gallery exhibition of Bach collaborated with PIFO Gallery. There are some changes suggest that Bach has shifted from the influence of Imi Knoebel’s ideas of redesigning and material simplicity to a freer, bigger world of minor things. This is especially evident in Bach’s recent works created in the past two years, where he divided each painting into two sections with each section being self-independent and full of life. By combining different sections, the artist has constructed a growing overt visual conflict and a balanced relationship between sections.
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Enrico Bach’s “Theater of the Minor” (Selected)
by FANG Zhiling
Enrico Bach was born in Leipzig in the former state of East Germany in 1980, Enrico Bach moved to Karlsruhe with his parents at the age of nine. Against this background, Bach easily reminds us of many other German artists of the old generation, who were born in East Germany and have been celebrated in the world of art in China, such as Markus Lüpertz, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, A. R. Penck and the artists in the New Leipzig School such as Neo Rauch being a principal representative. The connection that Bach makes to the former state of East Germany, however, is minimal. This is most probably because Bach had a happy childhood and hadn’t had any considerable experience of the difference between the East and the West since his relocation to western Germany. Meantime, the New Leipzig School movement had become increasingly prominent when he studied art in Karlsruhe; and he was less interested in it. Instead, Bach’s obsessive interest in various possibilities for painting in the present has accrued over time.
Bach’s paintings have pushed the boundaries between non-representational art and representational art. On one hand, his paintings epitomize the most sophisticated combination of geometric lines, shapes, and color blocks. All of the parallel lines, regardless of the length and quantity, are parallelly juxtaposed. Be it a color blocking or a series of lines transitioning radiantly from light to dark, every single one is as precise as if being printed in high resolution. In particular, the accurate measures of the sides are brilliantly exquisite and astounding, which is entirely typical of geometric abstract paintings. On the other hand, those scrupulously crafted images that are composed of geometric lines, shapes, and color blocks might oftentimes remind the viewers of a series of everyday objects, such as half-opened blinds, tiled walls, randomly stacked documents, and scattered scrap papers, etc. Instead of meticulously recording a visual moment that can potentially touch the viewers, the artist draws on the simple shapes, delicate visual textures, and brilliant artificial colors, which altogether relate to tremendously varied, well-organized characteristics of the industry. With such a calm and theatrical atmosphere full of lights and shadows, the trivial objects glowing with a metallic finish—or the illuminating fluorescent screens— have been deprived of their fundamental characteristics. In perfect order, each of them takes on a unique visual sensibility in the presence of a strictly defined geometric form.
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About Artist
German, b. 1980, Leipzig, lives and works in Karlsruhe. Bach graduated from the State Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe in 2010 and completed his Masters studies under Prof. Gustav Kluge from 2010 to 2011. His works are represented in numerous private and public collections. He has won many awards since his studies: 2013, Debutant award of the State Academy of Fine Arts; 2012, Scholarship of the Art Funds, Bonn; 2011 and 2007, Winner of the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe; 2010, Residence Scholarship Stephan Balkenhol.
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Bach’s paintings have pushed the boundaries between non-representational art and representational art. On one hand, his paintings epitomize the most sophisticated combination of geometric lines, shapes, and color blocks. All of the parallel lines, regardless of the length and quantity, are parallelly juxtaposed. Be it a color blocking or a series of lines transitioning radiantly from light to dark, every single one is as precise as if being printed in high resolution. In particular, the accurate measures of the sides are brilliantly exquisite and astounding, which is entirely typical of geometric abstract paintings. On the other hand, those scrupulously crafted images that are composed of geometric lines, shapes, and color blocks might oftentimes remind the viewers of a series of everyday objects, such as half-opened blinds, tiled walls, randomly stacked documents, and scattered scrap papers, etc. Instead of meticulously recording a visual moment that can potentially touch the viewers, the artist draws on the simple shapes, delicate visual textures, and brilliant artificial colors, which altogether relate to tremendously varied, well-organized characteristics of the industry. With such a calm and theatrical atmosphere full of lights and shadows, the trivial objects glowing with a metallic finish—or the illuminating fluorescent screens— have been deprived of their fundamental characteristics. In perfect order, each of them takes on a unique visual sensibility in the presence of a strictly defined geometric form.
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About Artist
German, b. 1980, Leipzig, lives and works in Karlsruhe. Bach graduated from the State Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe in 2010 and completed his Masters studies under Prof. Gustav Kluge from 2010 to 2011. His works are represented in numerous private and public collections. He has won many awards since his studies: 2013, Debutant award of the State Academy of Fine Arts; 2012, Scholarship of the Art Funds, Bonn; 2011 and 2007, Winner of the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe; 2010, Residence Scholarship Stephan Balkenhol.
