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Julian Schnabel, born 1951 in New York, lives and works in New York. Schnabel´s work is suffused with a volatile arising from the clash of dichotomous elements; contradicting aspects live as uneasy neighbors. Powered by this sense of imminent combustion, Schnabel´s poetic dissonance traverses unstable frontiers, fearless in the face of confrontation and experimentation.
Throughout the unstable and shifting landscape he creates, Schnabel´s distinctive hand and voice remain constant, his attitude questioning. Schnabel´s archeological fascination with fragments and remnants is tempered by lyric expressiveness and painterly extravagance. He celebrates the residue of human existence, arranging antiquated architectural elements, a photographic portrait, primitive shards in a baroque theater of expansive gestures and luxurious color. Drama and violence further pervade Schnabel´s work via the marks he makes: the viewer often finds palpable evidence of the trajectory of paint-soaked rags thrown against surfaces, as in his "Lost Relative".
From Wall Works
