Dirk Skreber Lübeck, Germany, b. 1961
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Working in various mediums, including painting, sculpture, and installation, Skreber is renowned for his artworks portraying scenes of accidental catastrophes.
b. 1961, Lübeck, Germany
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
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His unique style combines photorealistic elements with more painterly and illustrational techniques.
Having grown up in a suburban district of northern Germany, Skreber's artistic vision is deeply influenced by the industrial landscape of his youth. Through his sculptures and paintings, he delves into the intriguing connection between industry and art.
Skreber initially focused on painting, meticulously crafting landscapes of dystopian wastelands filled with car crashes and scattered bike parts on desolate roads. Drawing inspiration from the continuous stream of news footage, his artworks explore the collective memory of catastrophe. Despite the grim subject matter, Skreber's portrayal of mangled cars and destroyed buildings exudes a serene detachment, creating an unsettling tension in the viewer. The paintings possess an eerie aesthetic allure, evoking accidental memories, fantasies of being overwhelmed, or a sense of indirect threat.
In his renowned sculptures and installations featuring cars wrapped around poles, Skreber elevates realism to a new level. The grand scale of these works immerses the audience, evoking feelings of irrelevance mingled with the curious fascination often experienced by accidental witnesses to disasters. The intricate sculptural execution infuses these works with the narrative power usually found in paintings.
'I wanted to go closer to the material reality of my subject. I started thinking about a simulated crash, which was staged according to my sculptural vision. While making these works my concern was not at all about accidents but rather to use a massive and completely real transfer of energy as an opening door to a perspective on the flow of physical laws and metaphysical energies, loading and unloading, transforming and retransforming like batteries or spiritual bodies'.
Skreber’s works are held in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Museum für Modern Kunst in Frankfurt am Main.
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Works
Dirk Skreber Lübeck, Germany, b. 1961
Untitled, 1998Acrylic on canvas, foam180 × 240 cmFurther images
Dirk Skreber’s abstract pieces, like his figurative works, navigate the intricate relationship between form and substance. Operating in the intersection of abstraction and representation, his creations engage with materials not...Dirk Skreber’s abstract pieces, like his figurative works, navigate the intricate relationship between form and substance. Operating in the intersection of abstraction and representation, his creations engage with materials not for spectacle, but as a thoughtful process where the interplay of color and line serves to bring forth an image, reflecting a purposeful exploration of visual language.Exhibitions
'Create Your Own Museum'. Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow. Jan–Feb 2007Publications
'Create Your Own Museum'. Gary Tatintsian Gallery, 2007. pp. 76–772of 2