Sebastian Bieniek (1975) - Face no. 2 (of "111 Faces" series)

The winner of the auction will receive an authenticity certificate issued in his name (see photo No. 10).

"Face No. 2" and thus the second painting from the well-known series "111 Faces" by the internationally renowned Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek (born 1975).

The gesturally painted painting shows an expressive, expressively painted portrait. The artist here paints rather expressions and thus expressivity than a specific person. He tries to capture the character as a moment and present it freed from the everyday mask we all wear.

Thus the 111 portraits of the series represent an act of liberation by the artist and the art.

The 2016 painting is characterized by a thick and gestural brushwork, giving the painting a somewhat modeled and sculptural feel. It seems as if the face, its expression and the brushwork merge into one harmonious form.

The artist Sebastian Bieniek was born in 1975 in Poland. He studied art at the HBK Braunschweig and UdK Berlin with Marina Abramović, John M. Armleder, and Katharina Sieverding, and from 1998–2000 he was a member of the then-known as the "artistic center of the city" Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin, where he shared a studio with the artist Chiharu Shiota.

During this period Bieniek became known for his drastic actions and conceptual art. Later he studied film directing and made films. From 2008 he painted again, and by 2013 at the latest he became world-famous through his paintings and photographs with ambivalent statements and depictions.

His works have since 2013 repeatedly gone viral worldwide, have been shown on television and published in the world's largest and most important magazines, and achieved not only broad distribution and fame but also entry into the music and even fashion scenes.

For example, in 2014 the American musician Pharrell Williams, in his hit video "Marylin Monroe," featured Bieniek's work several times, and even the singer Madonna contacted Bieniek in 2016 (article in Vogue Spain) and asked him to design the cover for her "X-Album." In 2015 the French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus had his models walk the Paris Fashion Week catwalk with a face personally painted by Bieniek, thereby winning the prestigious LVMH Special Jury Prize. In 2015 Sebastian Bieniek was named by The Culture Trip Magazine as one of the "Top 5 Influential Contemporary Berlin-Based Artists."