Lombard-Freid Projects is pleased to present Pet Sounds, the second solo show of Berlin-based artist Ulrich Lamsfuss.

For this exhibition, Lamsfuss has created a new series of paintings and drawings with the eye of an editor untroubled by content. His works are about the aesthetics of the banal. A monochrome still-life of a BMW engine, a close up of a bunch of tomatoes on the vine rendered in saturated colors, and a nude woman holding a bottle of perfume culled from an advertising campaign are just a few examples of his eclectic world. What makes this apparently disjointed subject matter even more puzzling is the replication of each of the paintings presented at Lombard-Freid Projects and their simultaneous display at a West Coast gallery. Lamsfuss paints the same motif twice in a conscious process of eliminating the idea of a subject matter. His work is as much about the act of painting as it is about the process of stoic routine.

Looking at these paintings from a distance they resemble in minute-detail their sources: images collected from popular entertainment, magazines, newspapers, advertising, television etc. They seem so familiar yet look totally uncanny. What makes this mélange of images the unique work of Ulrich Lamsfuss? During a recent studio visit in Berlin he said that his practice could be understood as that of an “image collider.” The clash of random sources sets one free from any form of misreading. In other words, in front of a Lamsfuss painting the viewer is a third generation author, looking at the ordinary and leaving with an awareness of the extraordinary.

Lamsfuss’s style, his brushstrokes may recall the works of Martin Kippenberger or George Baselitz, with whom he studied. At the same time, his paintings are more realistic and could be easily mistaken for traditional paintings. In actuality, however, they resist any type of categorization as they don’t explain or direct interpretation. Their bluntness allows them to intake the viewer’s own thoughts; they are as fictional as they are hyper real.

Next at Lombard-Freid Projects: New video installation by Jessica Bronson.


Lombard-Freid Projects represents: Shiva Ahmadi, Jessica Bronson, Cao Fei, Jacob Feige, Naomi Fisher, Carlos Garaicoa, Leopold Kessler, Ulrich Lamsfuss, Lee Mingwei, Dan Perjovschi, Michael Rakowitz, Rosangela Renno, and Eva Struble.