Rade Petrasevic's works at first glance appear as traditional paintings: he uses oil on canvas, in an elongated, vertical or horizontal format. At first glance –. At second glance it all raise doubts. In his works, Petrasevic arranges figurative and abstract elements in a way that they can hardly be assigned to one of the two categories. The oil paint is diluted and applied lightly, thus it appears to be an aquarelle, or even a felt pen drawing. In fact, some structural elements are rather rooted in the drawing: the uneven application of paint, the blank surface around the figures and the flashy, almost hysterical color range refer to the comic genre; the stroke itself seems more like a child's drawing, and so forth. These elements are then contrasted by splotches of paint, applied immediately out of the tube, which allocates the image distinctly back to the medium of painting. Petrasevic thus “organizes” the dichotomies – abstract/figurative, drawing/painting – to have a functioning image as the result. Rade Petrasevic (*1982 in Vienna) holds a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and Jerusalem. He is an alumnus of Franz Graf and Daniel Richter. Petrasevic lives and works in Vienna.

Lance De Los Reyes works on the floor or with the tarp pinned directly to the wall, and hence the works are often presented like skins or pelts tacked up onto canvasses. The surfaces are heavily distressed, the paints often smeared with hands and fingers wiped off along the edges, footprints and debris criss-cross the area. In this way the works are part of a lived process as opposed to an easel painting approach; they take shape with immediacy and fervor, and the imperfections are not contrived niceties but real record of the path of the painter creating from his imagination. De Los Reyes is a believer, for what it’s worth, and believes that painting can communicate sacred truths, powerful ideas or important subtleties. The artworks feature symbolic imagery, inventive forms, color patterns derived from alchemical tables and beliefs. Many works feature archetypes or concepts that have a pan-global mythological inspiration and take from many archaic belief systems to imbue meaning. Like Julian Schnabel he believes in man, myth and magic in painting and has the power, energy and almost manic intensity to create with similar ambition. Lance De Los Reyes was born in Texas and studied painting, performance, sculpture and video at the San Francisco Art Institute. He is also very well known for his billboard painting and illegal graffiti writing under the moniker RAMBO.

Graphic works represent an impressive compendium within the oeuvre of Julian Schnabel, which he continues with the current series The Sky Is Falling. As in his paintings, they reflect the diversity and intrinsic creative urge of the artist, who constantly applies surprising printing techniques and materials. Characteristic for Julian Schnabel‘s expressionist work is the free experimentation with different materials, techniques and also citations. His complex overpaintings are characterized by associative, encyclopedic-seeming visual worlds, which Schnabel borrows and alienates artistically. The results are intertextual embedded works of art with a deliberately open character. Often they tell about the hidden, the fragmentary yet seemingly all-connected, while moving along an emotional and irrational level with an expressive intensity.

For more than a decade, Katrin Fridriks has been experimenting with the constitutive elements of painting, that is the quality of the paint, its support, as well as a range of unconventional painting techniques, to attain her distinct and outstanding style. It is the unique interplay between the medium, the timing and the artists’ body moving around a canvas on the floor that encompasses the fluid and organic quality of her paintings. These are best described as an occurrence, rather than a static image: The moment of eruption, liquid matter gushing from deep inside, small particles hurtling through the air, dripping all over the surface, all solid is liquefied and each layer set in motion. This depiction of her abstract painting furthermore alludes to natural occurrences, such as the scene of the outburst of a geyser in her home country, Iceland. The unique and pristine landscape of the geologically active island has been an enormous influence on her work and life. By means of her distinct painting technique, Fridriks captures the force and the sublime of its nature, without depicting an event or the scenery, as such. Although applied on a canvas, the paint only seems to have come to a temporary halt, before continuing to swirl and splash over the edges of the canvas – and into the space of the beholder. Rather than capturing a moment in time, her technique evokes a feeling of movement and energy that, on an abstract level, directly relates to the origin of the evolution of the universe.

Oskar Rink's creative process is characterized by a constant alternation between the two- and the three-dimensional. She often begins with filigree paper constructions or small models made of wood or cardboard, following internal impulses in which everyday impressions and memories are channeled. For Rink, constructing and building are contemplative processes, which represent a first means to systematise her surroundings. The small sculptures also serve as a source for objects and forms she uses for paintings and large-scale installations. While earlier paintings were predominantly characterized by geometric abstractions, her recent works depict stage-like situations. Linear compositions and sparse coloured parts impart the spaces with a distinct clarity. Further objects are added to the interiors: abstract elements, fragments of constructed works or real situations taken from the artist's studio - everything seems to fit into the logical laws of the spatial structure. Contrary to the cliché that artists process their innermost selves in their works, Rink sees her works as representing a salutary state, as a kind of medicine. Isolated places where chaotic states can be controlled or completely locked out. Oskar Rink (* 1980 in Leipzig) lives and works in Leipzig.