Jenny Brosinski TOO FAT TO FLY

Brosinski is one of the prominent figures of a new generation of contemporary abstract painters in Europe. The Berlin artist's aesthetic is unmistakably her own, setting a new standard in the styles of 'dirty minimal' and 'conceptual expressionism’. One adjective keeps coming up in connection to her painting style: cool. But what does the word 'cool', so exceedingly overused in everyday language, actually mean for a painter and her pictorial world?

In the Oxford Dictionary, this adjective is defined as follows: "always keeping calm, not being afraid, not getting nervous, not letting oneself get upset; calm, collected, casual". This describes Brosinski's hand precisely. Although her pictures can be riotous –  yes, they are energetically charged and vibrant – at the same time a calmness emanates through them, a composure in each individual stroke, in the way they are painted over and rewritten. Her paintings exude confidence in the way figurative forms are expelled, the abstract retaining ambiguity in a few swift detours. This is exactly the drama of the works: Abstraction and figuration play off each other, one sometimes yielding more than the other, fighting yet laughing. Enveloped in a sovereignty that seems very casual, as if she were pirouetting on the ice while smoking a pipe.

Ghosts, dolphins, unicorns … even airplanes and cars appear. Her spirit settles into splashes of colour, her presence reinforced by a few loose lines. Akin to childlike animism where stones or toys come alive, the abstract forms also come into a figurative life. The creatures live between the brushstrokes as if in their natural habitat. Like a matter of fate,  the strokes, lines, and non-forms belong to their habitat. In the works on paper, Brosinski goes way out on a limb. This is how she refers to it when figurative forms emerge. Specifically, a skull or a horse rolling on its back. These are not typical works for her. Nevertheless, they were kept and honestly exhibited as a paper series. Curiosities, which nevertheless generated an impulse from which other more abstract works sprang forth.

The exhibition title ‘Too Fat to Fly’ is an endearing homage to bumblebees - animals favored by Brosinski. They are said to be too round and heavy to fly. The bumblebee, however, does not know this, and therefore tries again and again. Brosinski draws a parallel with being an artist. You never know whether something, i.e. a painting or a style, will work, but it is better not to think about it and keep trying.

The cephalopods also fall into this category of attempt and possible failure. Children draw their first human figures, and sometimes succeed in making them more or less recognisable. Brosinski's application of this drawing scheme into her own visual language allows for impact from both sides of the field: the cephalopods are painted over or disassembled into their individual parts, thus scoring abstract points, or they remain together as figurative beings. Classic colours like yellow, light blue or black also play an active role in her new works. Black particularly dominates, overriding earlier brushstrokes, sometimes in the form of a stick house, sometimes as an omitted stain. These rewritings not only testify to a confrontation between artist and canvas, but also to the fact that changes in life's course, as in a painting, are not a list of mistakes, but reflect an honest, human progression towards self-determination.

The play between abstract and figurative worlds is never clearly defined in Brosinski's work; as quickly as a ball bounces back, recognisable forms are called into question again. All this happens without fear, without hurry, and with a cool flick of the wrist.

— Dr. Larissa Kikol, independent art critic and art historian

阿尔敏·莱希 - 上海荣幸呈现德国艺术家珍妮·布罗辛斯基（Jenny Brosinski）于画廊的第二次个展，展出艺术家全新系列绘画和纸上作品，展期为2023年5月12日至6月24日。

布罗辛斯基是欧洲新一代当代抽象艺术 的代表人物之一。 这位柏林艺术家的艺术风格无疑是独树一帜的只属于她自己，为“粗糙极简主义 ”（dirty minimal）和“观念表现主义”（conceptual expressionism）的风格树立了新的标准。而关于其绘画风格的讨论，一个形容词 不断出现：“酷”。但是，在日常对话中经常被过度使用的“酷”这个词对于艺 术家，和她创造的绘画世界意味着什么呢？

在《牛津词典》中，对“酷”的官方定义是：“永远冷静，不害怕，不紧张，不 让自己不开心；冷静，镇定自若”。这确实是对布罗辛斯基笔下作品的准确描述 。 尽管她的画可能是喧闹的——是的，它们皆充满蓬勃活力——它们同时散发着平静的气息，在每一道笔触中都呈现出沉着冷静，其涂抹和重绘的手法中也透出从容。布罗辛斯基自信地从画布上释放具象形式，同时在几条利落、蜿蜒的线条中 保留抽象的模糊性。这正是其作品的戏剧张力所在：抽象和具象的形式相抗衡， 而有时一方相较另一方会屈服得更多，既挣扎却欢笑着。一切沉浸在一种似乎很 随意的主权中，就如同她在冰上滑冰时边抽烟斗边旋转一般。

幽灵、海豚、独角兽……甚至连飞机和汽车也出现了。布罗辛斯基的精神沉淀在色彩的飞溅中，松散的线条强化了艺术家的存在感。类似于童年时将石头或玩具带入生活的万物有灵论，抽象的形式也具象地活跃了起来。画布中的生物藏身于笔触之间，仿佛那是它们的自然栖息地；如同命定一般，笔触、线条和不具特定形状的物件也都属于它们的栖息地。在纸上作品中，布罗辛斯基可说是无路可退 ：当其作品中出现具体形式时，她便如此称呼这种情况。具体来说，是出现一个头骨或一匹在翻滚的马。这些都不能称得上是她的典型作品。 尽管如此，它们还是被保存下来，并作为纸上作品如实地被展示。值得令人玩味 ，但尽管如此还是孕育出创作冲动，并应运而生更为抽象的作品。

题为「太胖了飞不起来」的展览，是对布罗辛斯基最喜欢的动物大黄蜂的一种可爱的致敬。据说黄蜂因为体型太圆太重，飞不起来。然而，大黄蜂并不知道这一点，因此一次又一次地尝试飞翔。布罗辛斯基将这种行比作成为一名艺术家。你永远不知道某件事，比如一幅画或一种风格是否会成功奏效，但最好不要多想并 持续不断的尝试。

头足类动物也属于这一类努力尝试并可能失败的类别。孩子们画出了他们笔下的首个人形，有时会成功地让人形或多或少地被识别出来。布罗辛斯基将这种绘画方法应用到她自己的视觉语言中，并受到来自光谱两侧的影响：头足类动物被涂抹掉或被分解成各自散落的部分，从而构成了抽象意向，或作为具象形态保持在 一起被呈现。黄色、浅蓝色或黑色等经典颜色也在布罗辛斯基的新作品中发挥了主导作用。黑色尤其占据主宰地位，压倒性抹去了先前的笔触，有时以线条房屋的形式出现，有时则是被省略的污点。这些涂抹改写不仅证明了艺术家和画布之间的相抗衡，也证明了一个事实，即生活轨迹的变化，就像在一幅画中，并不是 一系列的错误，而是反映了人类坦率地走向自我决定的过程。

在布罗辛斯基的作品中，抽象世界和具象世界之间的相匹敌从未被明确界定；就像弹回的球一样，可识别的形式再次迅速受到质疑。而这一切都无所畏惧的发生了，不疾不徐，只需很酷的轻挥一下手腕。

文/Dr Larissa Kikol