De Buck Gallery is pleased to present, THE WALL, a solo exhibition by Jens Lorenzen. Predominately using oil on canvas, Lorenzen’s work uses well-known images, forging them into a chain of associations that at first glance follow no logical system. However, upon further consideration of the pairings, the viewer inevitably draws subjective links, which is the artist’s intended reaction.

Lorenzen’s WALL begins with an “origin” painting featuring overlapping images of logos, figures and slogans which spill off the edge of the canvas onto the canvases on either side. The themes and associations continue to build and change as they travel from one work to the next progressing away from the origin painting. THE WALL becomes Lorenzen’s dialogue, moving in a stream-of-conscious path away from the source. Lorenzen uses readily recognizable symbols and images, and the associations between those references question the existence of universal truth. THE WALL explores the relationships between such themes as religion, politics, mythology, commerce, and nostalgia by appropriating imagery from cartoons, logos, movie posters, political portraits, and newspaper prints.

In this exhibition, THE WALL appears at first to be a colorful collage of posters and advertisements, but upon further examination, Lorenzen’s skillful paintbrush has created these arrangements of familiar emblems. A profile of John F. Kennedy, a cartoon Geisha, the Apple iPod dancing silhouette and a splice of a Ghostbusters movie poster are but some of the identifiable impressions Lorenzen uses along THE WALL. The end result is a scene from everyday urban life: surfaces plastered with advertisements, some peeling away, others barely covering the previous ones, fusing together and narrating the moment.

Jens Lorenzen was born in Schleswig, Germany in 1961. He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig, Germany from 1985 to 1991. He has been exhibited throughout Europe and the US.

Jens Lorenzen lives and works in Berlin.