ruhland
Recent paintings
Sebastian Ruhland excels as a Hyper-realist. His paintings resemble a digital photograph and yet, though photographic in essence, they often entail a softer and much more complex focus on the subject, presenting it as a living tangible object.
Ruhland uses photographic images as reference source from which to create a definitive and detailed rendering, one that often is narrative and emotive in its depictions. His objects are meticulously detailed creating the illusion of a new reality not seen in the original photo, appearing in a clearer and more distinct way than the actual subject itself.
He loves to paint difficult surfaces, shadows and reflections requiring a high level of technical mastery and virtuosity. One can for instance count the manifold pores of a paper napkin, feel the softness of silky, lavishly outspread flower petals and smell the lemon cut just a minute ago. In his painting ‘Café con leche’ the coffee cup is set against an exquisitely composed vague background full of cosy shadows and soft brown light, illustrating exactly the association many people will have when it comes to coffee. Shapes, forms and areas closest to the forefront of the image visually appear beyond the frontal plane of the canvas-thus for example allowing for the spectator to delve into the water of Ruhlands’ ‘underwater fishes’.
And yet Ruhland does not rank among the literal hyper-realistic painters. His paintings have a surreal touch and remind of still life’s by René Magritte. By setting objects that themselves are hyper-real against an impossible setting Ruhland deliberately fractures the sumptuous illusion in pointing out that no matter how closely, through realism-art, one comes to depicting an item accurately, one will never catch the item itself.
Sebastian Ruhland, born in 1976 in Mainz, started his career as a church painter in 2001 and worked as such for 5 years. In 2005 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg where he is currently studying. Brussels Flamingo is proud to host Ruhland’s first Solo Show.
Exhibition „Sebastian Ruhland– Recent paintings“, 22 May until 5 July 2008
Vernissage: 22 May 2008, 6-9pm