Sebastian Bieniek - “Ghost Rider No. 59” (Amy Winehouse)

When you purchase, you will receive a certificate of authenticity issued in your name

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THE WORK:

For sale is an overpainted photograph of the late British singer Amy Winehouse. Painted with acrylics on cardboard, which is mounted on wood (MDF, about 2 mm thick).

Size: 31 x 31.5 cm.
Front and back hand-signed. On the back titled and stamped.


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ABOUT THE SERIES:

The series “Ghost Riders” by the Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek references ideas of guardian angels and fate in connection with the tragically short lives of famous people – especially from the fields of music, film, literature and art – and questions whether their tragic end might perhaps be part of their success and thus fated from the start.

In this way, the series functions on the one hand as a kind of extended “Club 27” (to which musicians like Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain belong, who died at age 27) and on the other hand as a continuation of the body of work “Doublefaced”; for here, too, the second figure – and thus the second half of the “self” – is embodied by a subject that transcends physical perception and resides on another, meta level.

The “self” thus exists on two levels: a realistic one and a meta-level connected with concepts of guardian angels and fate – and in a broader sense with the world itself.

The work thus engages with the ancient, universal concept of a two-part world – for example in the distinction between “ancestors and the living,” “humans and gods,” or even “software and hardware,” which ultimately is nothing other than a separation into “idea and body” or “command and action.”

Bieniek seeks in his work a visible form for both – and thus for the whole.


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THE ARTIST:

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

During that time 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 had become world-famous through his paintings and photos with ambivalent statements and depictions.

From 2013 his works spread virally worldwide several times, were shown on television and published in the world’s largest and most important magazines, achieving not only wide distribution and recognition but also impact in the music and even fashion scenes.

For example, in 2014 American musician Pharrell Williams repeatedly featured a Bieniek work in his hit video “Marylin Monroe,” and even the singer Madonna contacted Bieniek in 2016 (Vogue Spain article) and asked him to design the cover for her “X-Album.” In 2015 French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus had Bieniek personally paint faces on his models during Paris Fashion Week for a show, 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.”

After 2019 Bieniek created mainly socially critical conceptual works embedded with humorous and ironic elements. In this way he remained true to his always-subversive motto and definition of art and never allowed himself to be co-opted or exploited.