In Conversation with Wolfe von Lenkiewicz

We are delighted to invite you to join us In Conversation with Wolfe von Lenkiewicz at his studio located in a town house in Mayfair where he will be unveiling a large-scale in-situ installation during Frieze week. Lenkiewicz is known for his artistic reconfigurations of well-known imagery from art history and visual culture to create ambiguous compositions that question art historical discourses. His ‘post-historic’ practice carefully examines the question of what constitutes an original work of art. By borrowing from existing visual culture and creating a system of deconstructing the linearity of historical perspective he challenges our notions of past and present to delineate a space that lies outside of history. Rather than relegating a painting to a time period, recent paintings by von Lenkiewicz can be viewed more accurately as a form of hybrid, a fulcrum between ages. There is a scholarly tendency to want to categorise and insert artworks into particular “-isms” and overlook the organic history of art, the way in which various styles overlap and intertwine.

By employing a high level of craftsmanship with unprecedented minute detail and the use of Old Master techniques, including grisaille, the artist attempts to exploit the true capabilities of oil painting. The intricate iconography in the painting obscures its hidden secrets in plain sight for determined viewers to find, if they know how to look. Recent solo exhibitions include: 2015 Wolfe von Lenkiewicz: Elective Affinities, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin; Delirious Picasso, House Of The Nobleman in collaboration with Mark Sanders Art Consultancy Ltd, Academy Mansion, New York 2014; Algebra: The Reunion Of Broken Parts, House Of The Nobleman, London; Wolfe von Lenkiewicz: Paintings and Drawings, Galerie MIRO, Prague; Wolfe Von Lenkiewicz: Paintings, Drawings, Film, Riflemaker, London; 2013 The Raft of the Medusa, All Visual Arts, London; 2012 Hieronymus Bosch, All Visual Arts, London