Leo Koenig Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of Deepest Darkest a solo exhibition of new works on paper by Christian Schumann. For the exhibition, Schumann continues the contemplative, intricate and labor–intensive works that has distinguished his body of work for the past three years.

Upon entering the gallery, the works, all identically sized, appear as abstract ones. Upon closer inspection the drawings reveal impossibly dense, secret worlds. The manner of improvisation is similar to Schuman’s previous abstract work in that marks are placed upon fields of color. There are also distant links to comic books as many of the works seem to evoke nano-cities overrun with self-replicating technology, and androids melding into organic matter that has begun to proliferate. Hybrids of organic and artificial become enmeshed with one another on fields of gradating color imbued by an inexplicable melancholy.

Schumann describes these works as impoverished landscapes that relate a speculative fiction. The title alludes to the darkest impulses of mankind. The subconscious is a referent as well. Though the idea of an inner landscape is contrived, it is still valid. There is also a nod to American notions of the exotic, and the tendency of a socially oppressive/restrictive society to only allow for forms of subconscious release to be exposed via the conduits of taboo.

Christian Schumann has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide. His work has been included in exhibitions such as “The Panic Room,” – works from the Dakis Janou Collection, The Deste Foundation, Athens Greece, “Proliferation,” at MOCA Los Angeles, and “Pop Surrealism,” Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. His work has been included in public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Dallas Museum. Christian Schumann currently lives and works in Los Angeles.