Florian Süssmayr: Selbstporträt
Self-portrait is the title of the Florian Süssmayr exhibition for the Open Art 2017. An oft-used motif, the self-portrait also plays a central role in Florian Süssmayr’s paintings. Süssmayr, however, is not interested in creating realistic likenesses using a mirror, but rather in reflections of himself in a broader sense. His works, which are frequently based on photographs, captivate viewers with their painterly reproduction of various places. From an elevator to a city block to a bathroom mirror, the artist is intrigued by everyday scenes and objects in which his image is recognizable only in its contours, in the form of an outline, his shadow, or a fleeting reflection. His ego is irrelevant. The surrounding is foregrounded, rendered in more detail than the actual portrait. These self-portraits are closely related to the artist’s biography, telling stories of life in a manner typical of Florian Süssmayr’s paintings.
An exhibition wall covered in a large poster on the gallery's ground floor serves as a backdrop for autobiographical images. These drawings are on view in this exhibition for the first time, all of them in inner record sleeves as if the pictures were the label stickers. The poster on the wall documents the exhibition space of the Maximilianforum in Munich (2009) after Süssmayr's opening, during which the punk band Riot Reiser gave a raucous performance. The exhibition presented simple tile paintings in oil on paper that were connected to a poster action in the city staged by "institutions" and Süssmayr himself. Along with the paintings, the poster depicts the aftermath of the concert, reminiscent of a still life. Juxtaposed with this is a real still life with a Jägermeister bottle that seems to lean against the wall in a photorealistic fashion. The arrangement bespeaks a tireless act of toying with reality and the metaphorical process, to which Florian Süssmayr often likes to subject his works.
The series "Selbstportrait mit Nachtlebengang" (Self-Portrait with Nightlife Gang) presents portraits of his friends. The artist's alter ego, the returning wolf roaming the night, keeps resurfacing.
