Andrew Guenther’s work addresses themes of spirituality and the evolution of the self and culture. This series of mixed media works on paper, which contain items appropriated from consumer culture, also explores the intricate relationship between the individual and object. Articles of clothing, sunglasses and other commonplace items are combined with alien, otherworldly figures depicted in broad flat forms with details in thick impasto. Positioned squarely in the foreground, these figures loom out at the viewer, as if to assert the valorization of the individual in postmodern society. Guenther invites the viewer to consider how the meaning and purpose of objects, as well as thoughts and ideas, are constantly shifting as they pass through the lens of the individual. He states, “What we do with our time will not be remembered as much as the things we leave behind – ideas, objects, and substances become the cultural repository to which all of us contribute and collect.” Overall, the sharp contrast in media, form and textures give these works a jarring, fragmented quality that mirrors the instability of social order in a consumerist society.

Andrew Guenther lives and works in New York. He has exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe.