Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas has had a unique position since the early 1980´s within the world of figurative painting focusing on how the human body is translated into an image. Dumas does not use models, but instead takes her images are from her own photo archive, mass media and popular culture sources. Dumas´work are psychologically disturbing but within their provocative energy lurk provocative questions about gender, identity, oppression, sexual and ethnic violence, and the situation of women and minorities; Dumas is always seeking to initiate new thought processes and critical strategies. Marlene Dumas blurs the boundries between painting and drawing. Bold lines and shapes mix seamlessly with ephemeral washes and thick gestural brushwork. By simplifying and distorting her subjects, Dumas creates intimacy through alienation. The exhibition is originated in collaboration with the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden Baden and the Helsinki Festival and Kunsthalle Helsinki. Selected as the core of the exhibition is an extraordinary serie of 211 watercolours, Female, from 1992-93 that belongs to the Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, Sammlung Garnatz.

Marlene Dumas