Derived primarily from his archive of photographic newspaper reproductions, Austen's deliberate, semi-abstract compositions embed themselves in the painterly concerns of surface, tautness and color, and are reflexive of his interest in mapping and geography.
"My paintings are often based on projected photographic source images. However the original source image is obliterated in the final painting... I manipulate the image in ways that both evoke and subvert recognition and play on voyeuristic curiosity in the final painting. In each painting I attempt to strike a balance between personal reflection and political and social currents while simultaneously commenting on the artistic medium itself."
- Austen's Artist Statement, 2014
Hartmut Austen (b. 1967, Lüdenscheid, Germany) received his Meisterschüler-degree from Hochschule der Künste (University of the Arts) Berlin. He also studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Austen was a Grant Wood Fellow for Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History in 2013 and an inaugural Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow in 2009.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in private, corporate, and institutional collections such as The Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. Austen has been with The Butcher's Daughter gallery since 2010.
Currently, Austen works as an Assistant Professor in Painting and Drawing at the University of Minnesota and divides his time between Minneapolis and Detroit.
Join us for the opening reception Saturday, January 18th from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Butcher's Daughter gallery in Detroit Michigan.
