STEFAN STRUMBEL "TOGETHER IS MY FAVORITE PLACE TO BE!"

Artist

Stefan Strumbel was born in 1979 as the son of the former Yugoslavian judoka Toni Strumbel, who emigrated to Germany in 1962 as an electrician . In 1993 Strumbel discovered his passion for graffiti /murals. He sprayed walls and trains, which is why he got into trouble with the judiciary for the first time in 1996 and had to negotiate charges of criminal damage to property. In 2001, Stefan Strumbel decided to work as a freelance artist and in 2007 he was awarded a scholarship from the Hohenkarpfen Art Foundation and a Montana scholarship.

In his works, Stefan Strumbel exaggerates cultural and cult objects such as cuckoo clocks, wooden masks from the Alemannic carnival or crucifixes with stylistic elements from street art and pop art and places them in a new, sometimes provocative context. For example, he replaces significant elements of the cuckoo clock, such as carvings of original homeland symbols, with motifs that are associated with violence, pornography and death. At first glance, the external shape of the objects reveals nothing of the disturbing contents - always solid and meticulous wood carvings, which, with their brightly colored varnish, have the appearance of a superficial pop culture.

Stefan Strumbel initiates a change in values: In his transformation art, traditional values, a transfigured sense of home and the reality of individual origins disappear behind an aesthetic that becomes a symbol of social status symbols. He unmasks the mechanisms of a society that succumbs to the omnipresent stimuli of the media in its pursuit of status and consumption. With his objects, the artist creates an illusory world that serves as a mirror to social reality.

Stefan Strumbel's collectors include Karl Lagerfeld and Hubert Burda.

Color

Neon orange

Technology

screen printing

edition

150 + 15 ap

Year

2020

Dimensions

60x80cm