Inside Clemens Krauss (°1979, Graz, lives and works in Berlin) there is a painter, a conceptualist and a performer, all rolled into one. The study of duality between body and soul is a recurring theme in his work.
His fascination with the human body is the basis for his performances and expressive style of painting. In the Kunst Nu-space, he will create a new figurative composition based on his work entitled, ‘Das Körperkörper-Problem’. The human figures he depicts on the canvas or on white walls in solid layers of paint, centimeters thick, have no individual identity. They are obscure moments, faceless figures in the crowd, almost familiar but not quite. Even though the outlines are blurred, the colours merge together and the bodies are often no more than torsos, the sculptural painting technique brings them dynamically to life. The composition places them in a certain social pattern, thus creating a network of communication. The whole is flanked by silky fragments of text that suggest the embodiment of the soul as well. The space becomes a temporary supporter of the images until all traces are erased and they live on in photographs, texts and the memory of the spectator.
