Marvelli Gallery is proud to present dunkel, dunkel, hell, hell, the third solo exhibition at the gallery of German artist Nils Karsten. The show will feature a series of large-scale works on paper as well as smaller framed drawings and collages. The exhibition continues the artist’s evolution from smaller, more intimate drawings into larger, more complex, ambitious and layered works.

Graphite continues to be the main material of Karsten’s visual exploration. After rubbing graphite powder into the surface to create a unique spatial effect, he incorporates an array of additional mediums – acrylic paint, watercolor, and collage. Images for each collage are taken from Chinese propaganda, Japanese manga, American X-rated adult comics, and German bedtime stories. In many cases, the collage replaces brushstrokes with a technique that challenges the notion of painterly spontaneity. Karsten’s new work draws unexpected links between Henry Darger’s feverish and obsessive watercolors and the cool, rational, but no less visually intense representations of European artists such as Klimt and Picabia.

Karsten’s subjective view of the world escapes onto the external stage charging it with emotions of fear and an underlying sense of exile, while maintaining a sense of hope. In this fantastic, manufactured world in which anything is possible, the imagery used is an attempt to create a sense of order and control that doesn’t seem to really exist.