Gustav Sonntag‘s large-format paintings deal with profound and socially relevant themes that explore human existence in the context of urban life. These themes include obsession, addiction, violence, resignation and homelessness and are depicted in vividly expressive figurative paintings.
At times the artist takes a detailed and emotional approach to his depictions, making his work both intense and disruptive. This pictorial intensity is achieved with the application of an expressive color palette, fast brushwork and amplified even further by the use of bold perspectives. This way Gustav’s figurative imagery evokes a sense of forceful confrontation with his subjects but also suggests the authenticity of an in-situ created image. However, derived from the very charged situations and places themselves, such as off corners in late night clubs or sidewalks inhabited by homeless people, the visual narration makes use of surrealist features with bending spaces and shapes, flaring or muted color schemes, pictorial spaces that unravel towards the edges of the canvas, and imprecision in the rendering of items held by the pictures' protagonists or their faces even.
For his latest series it is the urban street which serves as the stage for a variety of characters, scenes and actions. The viewers gaze meanders from situation to situation, with a relentless focus, at times various scenes are put together to one large tableau. Lifestyle and fate appear in uncanny simultaneity. It is a subtle voyeurism in which the spectator is placed and with which she/he has to deal with, while the artworks question and make wonder: Who is part of a society and who is not? And who to what extent?
Gustav Sonntag (*1994) lives and works in Leipzig and Dresden. He completed his studies at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig in 2022, receiving a Diploma in Fine Arts. Lately his works were on display in institutional exhibitions at Stadtgalerie Kiel (Dissonance, 2024) and currently in Potsdam (‚Gegen den Strich’ - Gen Z in der Kunst, 2024). PFLASTER‘ will be Gustav’s first solo show at Galerie Philipp Anders.