The "Mar I.A." series
M20241217 Mixed media Canvas 200 X 140 centimeters (78 X 55 Inches) 2024 In an era when artificial intelligence generates representations of our most uninhibited “prompts” at unimaginable speeds, I present this series of paintings, which—without my realizing it at the time—I had already begun in 1998. That year, I produced a portrait of my school friend Marie as part of an analog photography laboratory course. This image now serves as the point of departure for a new body of work, reconfigured into painterly compositions and interwoven with figures, hairstyles, clothing, and other motifs drawn from diverse art-historical movements. Copied again and again, the facial features drawn from the same photographic source inevitably change with each human “print.” Through this process, the work pays homage to the academy as an institution, while simultaneously integrating elements from my own personal history. The academic tradition and the autobiographical narrative intersect, generating a sp...
