Ralf Koenemann
Ralf Koenemann, born in Essen, Germany in 1961, explores the border between figuration and gestural abstraction in his powerful animal and landscape paintings.
The artist not only uses acrylic paint but also experiments with bitumen, spar varnish and concrete paints, sometimes mixing ash and other materials into his colours, creating haptic surfaces that lend his motifs a very unique liveliness.
Since the late 1980s, Koenemann has chosen the animal as the central theme of his painterly narrative. In various modes of representation, the artist makes animals such as polar bears, elephants, Tasmanian tigers, buffaloes, gorillas, rhinos and many more the protagonists of his paintings. Koenemann always presents them to the viewer in a close-up shot, so that the viewer seems to get particularly close to the creatures.
Furthermore, visualises the painter the tense relationship between animals and humans. This ambivalence takes on a new meaning in the context of global climate change and its consequences for humans and wildlife.
Ralf Koenemann lives and works in Essen and is regularly represented with his works in national and international exhibitions and various private collections.