reinecker
Empathy
portraits and self-portraits
The young painter Felix Reinecker is a master of the psychological portrait. As he needs to feel empathy with his sitters he portrays only close friends and himself. Together with his remarkable talent, this approach allows him to accomplish striking portraits of a stunning presence. He captures the sitters’ habitus and mood, but what is more – he grants us a glance at their soul.
Predominantly, Reinecker explores his own image in painting and graphics. Driven by insatiable curiosity for the changes of his own self and their reflection in a correspondingly changing physiognomy, he constantly aspires to become ever more concentrated and expressive. Even when he apparently portrays another person, he in the majority of cases just invents the portrait of an alter ego by subtly altering his own traits until the depicted, fictive person slowly emerges.
He often intensifies the impression by drawing on a typical expressionist stylistic device: the elongation, in particular of the neck. He only develops details when they are necessary to bring out the distinct character of a person. Accordingly, he will merely hint at limbs while meticulously mapping faces with energetic strokes and thick layers of paint.
Felix Reinecker, born in 1985 in Münster, Germany, started his career at Düsseldorf’s Academy of Fine Arts with Jörg Immendorff. This spring he will continue his studies under Peter Doig. Reinecker recently participated in the Group exhibition of Immendorff’s students at the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz (Germany) in honour of the great master, who passed away in 2007.
Brussels Flamingo is proud to host Reinecker’s first Solo Show.
Exhibition „Felix Reinecker – Empathy“, 20 March until 10 May 2008
Vernissage: 20 March 2008, 6-9pm