Friedrich Kunath

We could be looking for the same thing

2015-2016

Oil, acrylic and ink on canvas

81 x 111 x 1.5 inches

(205.7 x 281.9 x 3.8 cm)
ARG# KF2016-005

Gee It's Nice To Be Alone (L.A. River Brown Landscape)

2015

Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas

72 x 62.5 x 1.25 inches

(182.9 x 158.8 x 3.2 cm)
ARG# KF2015-001

Installation view:

"Juckreiz"

June 26 - September 11, 2016

Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf

A Brief History of Love

2015

Acrylic on canvas

60 x 48 x 1.5 inches

(152.4 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm)
ARG# KF2015-003

I've only just begun

2016

Acrylic and ink on canvas

60 x 48 x 1.5 inches

(152.4 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm)

ARG# KF2016-003

Fuck It, I Love You

2014

Acrylic, silkscreen, ink and pencil on canvas

30 x 24 x 1 1/2 inches

(76.2 x 61 x 3.8 cm)

ARG# KF2014-040

I may not be 100% happy but at least I'm not with you

2014

Acrylic and ink on canvas

59 x 46 x 1.5 inches

(149.9 x 116.8 x 3.8 cm)
ARG# KF2014-071

Cloudy, With a Chance of Tears

2016

acrylic, ink and colored pencil on canvas

60 x 48 x 1 1/2 inches

(152.4 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm)

ARG# KF2016-007

I Still Owe You For The Hole In My Heart
2014
Acrylic, oil, spray paint and pencil
60 x 46 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches
(152.4 x 118.1 x 3.2 cm)
ARG# KF2014-010
 

Installation view:

Friedrich Kunath
A Plan to Follow Summer Around the World
Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac, Ivry-Sur-Seine, France
January 17 – March 23, 2014

Photo : André Morin

Installation view:

Friedrich Kunath
The Temptation To Exist (May Contain Nuts)
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
March 15 – April 26, 2014


 

I Dreamed It Was A Dream That You Were Gone
2014
acrylic and pencil on canvas
39 x 21 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (99.1 x 54.6 x 3.2 cm) (I Dreamed a Dream)
41 x 21 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (104.1 x 54.6 x 3.2 cm) (That You Were Gone)
ARG# KF2014-024

A Brief History of Love
2014
acrylic on canvas
108 x 96 x 2 inches
(274.3 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm)
ARG# KF2014-014

Installation view:

FRIEDRICH KUNATH
Raymond Moody’s Blues
Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
September 21 – November 17, 2013

Sin & Gravity
2013
Oil, acrylic, and silkscreen on canvas
70.5 x 45 1/2 x 1 1/2 in
(179.1 x 115.6 x 3.8 cm)
ARG# KF2013-040

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What is not but could have been (somehow the wonder of life prevails)
2013
Oil, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas
91 3/4 x 173 1/4 in (233 x 440 cm)
ARG# KF2013-072

Installation view:

FRIEDRICH KUNATH
I'm Running Out Of World
White Cube Masons Yard, London
November 22, 2013 - 25 January 25, 2014

Untitled
2012
Mixed media on canvas

Installation view:


Lacan's Haircut
Blum & Poe
Los Angeles, CA
September 8 - October 27, 2012

 

The distance between me and me (Cologne Civet)
2011
Oil, acrylic, india ink, lacquer, pencil, watercolor on canvas
45 x 61 inches
(154.9 x 114.3 cm)
ARG# KF2011-035

Happy birthday yesterday (sleepy Cannes)
2011
India ink, pencil, watercolor on canvas
55 1/2 x 46 1/2 inches
(141 x 118.1 cm)
ARG# KF2011-034

Installation view:


Tropical Depression
Andrea Rosen Gallery
New York, NY
October 23 - December 4, 2010

All of My Problems Are Water Based (Strawberry)
2010
polystyrene foam, acrylic resin, clothes, shoes, acrylic and watercolor paint, plastic leaves, artificial peaches, grapes and apple, fake black bird, lacquer
44 x 60 x 39 inches
(111.8 x 152.4 x 94 cm)
ARG# KF2010-028

Installation view:


I used to be darker, but then I got lighter, and then I got dark again
Kaikai Kiki Gallery
Tokyo, Japan
May 14 - June 12, 2010

 

Cloudy with a Chance of Tears
2010
pencil and acrylic on canvas
101 x 78 inches
(256.5 x 198.1 cm)
ARG# KF2010-031

Installation view:

 

The Most Beautiful World in the World
White Cube, London
April 15 – June 4, 2011

Installation view:


Kunstverein Hannover
Hannover, Germany
November 28, 2009 -January 24, 2010

 

Installation view:


Twilight
Andrea Rosen Gallery
New York, NY
September 7 - October 13, 2007


Photo by Christopher Burke

Biography

Inextricably entwining the experience of the ordinary with the sublime, Friedrich Kunath’s work explores interior sensation, recontextualization and abstraction, and oppositional relationships that propel emotional experience. Within his painting, installation, and sculpture, images and objects build upon themselves in a layered stream of consciousness driven by the autobiographical, the conceptual, and the emotional. The act is an embrace of existence – both vibrant and mundane – where irony and melancholy coalesce with his version of “ sad optimism," and nostalgia wanders between past and future. Together, disparate yet individually familiar elements propose a kaleidoscopic view of somewhere between dreamscape and reality.


For full Artist Bio please download PDF below:

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Exhibitions

Past

Friedrich Kunath

The Temptation To Exist (May Contain Nuts)
March 15 – April 26, 2014
Main Gallery

Publications

Friedrich Kunath: In My Room

Text by Paul Hobson, Michael Bracewell, Ory Dessau, Claire Le Restif, Paul Luckraft

In My Room is a major new publication surveying the work of artist Friedrich Kunath. It encompasses the last five years of Kunath's practice and is an extension of his unique aesthetic.

Complex and playful installations of paintings, sculptures and videos feature a cornucopia of imagery, brought together from such diverse sources as Old Master paintings, slapstick cartoons, anthropomorphized animals, and pop iconography from the 1960s and 70s.

A narrative around the emotional life of the artist is enacted through fictional characters, producing an in-between world filled with both humour and pathos. The catalogue is designed by Yvonne Quirmbach in close collaboration with the artist.  New essays come from Michael Bracewell, Ory Dessau, Claire Le Restif, and Paul Luckraft.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Friedrich Kunath: Raymond Moody's Blues at Modern Art Oxford, 21 September – 17 November 2013.

Publisher: Walther König, Köln (February 28, 2014)
ISBN-10: 3863354427
ISBN-13: 978-3863354428

Friedrich Kunath: You Owe Me a Feeling

Text by David Berman; photographs by Michael Schmelling

This is Friedrich Kunath's first artist book published in the United States. In making the book, Kunath collaborated with the musician and poet David Berman and photographer Michael Schmelling.

You Owe Me a Feeling was produced alongside Kunath’s solo exhibition at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles: 2012′s Lacan’s Haircut.

Publisher: Blum & Poe (March 31, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0966350340
ISBN-13: 978-0966350340

Friedrich Kunath: The Most Beautiful World in the World

Text by Andrew Berardini and Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer

Published on the occassion of the artist's first solo exhibition in the UK, at White Cube Hoxton Square, April 15 - June 3, 2011.

Publisher: White Cube (June 2, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1906072450
ISBN-13: 978-1906072452

Friedrich Kunath: Home Wasn't Built in a Day

Text by Douglas Fogle, Matthew Thompson, René Zechlin

In his drawings, texts, objects, photographs, and videos, Friedrich Kunath deals with such themes as longing, melancholy, loneliness, wanderlust, and wistfulness from a subjective viewpoint that finds expression in titles like Homesick, I am a stranger here or I may not always love you. He combines personal life experiences with literary, musical, or art historical references into visual, ironic commentaries in various media. The installative total context of his exhibitions forms narrative contexts between the individual pieces that lead to the viewer to a fantastic world of associations. 



This catalogue is published on the occasion of Kunath’s solo exhibition at the Kunstverein Hannover, November 28, 2009–January 24, 2010.

Publisher: Sternberg Press (July 15, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1933128925
ISBN-13: 978-1933128924

Friedrich Kunath: In Someone's Shadow

Artist book: set of 32 color postcards in box. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Hello walls at BQ, Berlin, Sept. 4 - Oct. 31, 2009.

Extracts from "In someone's shadow" by Rod McKuen on verso of postcards.
 

Friedrich Kunath: Rising vs. Setting

by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Gregor Jansen, Anna Grande, and Jeff Poe

This is the artist's first monograph, published concurrently with his first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. at the Aspen Art Museum.

Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Aspen Art Press (February 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0934324441
ISBN-13: 978-0934324441

Friedrich Kunath

Artist book, published on the occassion of the exhibition Warum, at BQ, Cologne, January 19 - March 10, 2007.

Press

Artforum

On Friedrick Kunath's "You Owe Me a Feeling"

March, 2014

By Alison M. Gineras

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News

David Altmejd and Friedrich Kunath at the Kunsthal KAdE

September 22, 2016

The Kunsthal KAdE is presenting an exhibition of work by David Altmejd and Friedrich Kunath. Entitled 'Self-Fiction' and curated by Robbert Roos, the exhibition is on view from September 24, 2016 - January 1, 2017.  Please visit the museum website for more information.

Kunsthal KAdE
Eemplein 77
3812 EA Amersfoort (Eemhuis)
Netherlands

Friedrich Kunath at the Philara Collection

June 24, 2016

Friedrich Kunath's solo exhibition Juckreiz opens on Sunday at the Philara Collection, Düsseldorf. 

Philara Collection
Birkenstraße 47
40233 Düsseldorf

 

Friedrich Kunath in Artforum

March 1, 2014

Alison M. Gingeras examines Friedrich Kunath's artist book You Owe Me a Feeling (2012) in the March 2014 issue of Artforum.

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