Sebastian Bieniek - Facination No. 23 (unique)

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

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THE ARTWORK:

FRAMED (in a solid wood frame and with a mat):

Size including frame: 26.5 x 20.5 x 2.7 cm.

Offered for sale is a unique, one-of-a-kind work by artist Sebastian Bieniek, created in 2014.

It is an overpainted portrait photograph that is part of his “Facination Series,” which consists solely of overpainted paintings and photographs.

The original photograph dates from the 1960s.

Hand-signed, titled, and stamped on both the front and back.


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ABOUT THE SERIES:

The “Facination” series by Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek alludes to ideas of guardian angels and fate in connection with the tragic lot of human beings. It seeks to create a window between two worlds, such as “here and there” or “now and then,” and to bring them together in the form of a person.

For the artist, the “self” thus exists on two levels: a realistic one and a meta-level, linked to ideas of guardian angels and fate—and, more broadly, to the world itself.

The work therefore takes up the ancient, universal concept of a world divided into two parts—for example, the distinction between “ancestors and the living,” “humans and gods,” or even “software and hardware,” which ultimately amounts to a division between “idea and body,” or “command and action.”

In his work, Bieniek searches for a visible form for both—and thus for the whole.


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THE ARTIST:

Artist Sebastian Bieniek was born in Poland in 1975. He studied art at HbK Braunschweig and UdK Berlin under Marina Abramovic, John M. Armleder, and Katharina Sieverding. From 1998 to 2000, he was a member of Berlin’s “Kunsthaus Tacheles,” then known as the “artistic center of the city,” where he shared a studio with artist Chiharu Shiota.

During this period, Bieniek became known for his provocative actions and conceptual art. He later studied film directing and made films. From 2008 onward, he returned to painting, and by 2013 at the latest, he had become internationally renowned for his paintings and photographs with their ambiguous statements and imagery.

From 2013 onward, his works went viral several times around the world, were featured and published on television and in the world’s largest and most important magazines, and achieved not only widespread circulation and recognition but also influence in the music and even fashion scenes.

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

After 2019, Bieniek created primarily social-media-critical and state-critical conceptual works, often framed within a humorous and ironic idea. In this way, he remained true to his always-subversive principle and definition of art, and never allowed himself to be co-opted or used.