The Moloch City Project

Künstlerportrait Sebastian Heiner – Axel Feuß

Sebastian Heiner ist zur figürlichen Malerei zurückgekehrt, ob vorübergehend oder dauerhaft, muss sich erst noch zeigen. In seinem neuesten Statement bezeichnet er das Figürliche als Zwischenstadium und Übergang zur Abstraktion. Dennoch ist gerade seit 2018 eine beachtliche Serie mittelformatiger und wandfüllender Gemälde entstanden, auf denen Figuren geometrisch gegliederte Bildflächen beherrschen. Sie marschieren aufeinander zu, fallen übereinander, zeigen sich in herrschaftlichen Posen oder recken verzweifelt die Arme empor. Auf Heiners Webseite bilden diese Gemälde unter dem Label „Figurativ“ eine eigene Werkgruppe.

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Beyond Paradise, 200 x 400 cm, Acrylic/Canvas, 2019, Courtesy of the Artist

Beyond Paradise – Jenseits des Paradieses – Axel Feuß

Figurative or abstract – Sebastian Heiner has yet to decide on an issue which has polarised art in the 20th century. Since the early 1990s, he has painted groups of highly abstract figures who communicate with one other with vehemence and sweeping gestures, figures from all imaginable social layers, in periods ranging from mythological times to the present, and from indeterminate regions of the world.

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Moloch City Series, 36 x 27 cm, Watercolor/Sketchbooks, 2018, Private Collection

Moloch City – Prologue by Audrey Hörmann

When artists travel, they take their special view of the world along in their baggage. The painter Sebastian Heiner has traversed the globe a number of times with trips to Israel, Jordan and the Caucasus. On a number of occasions, he was able to combine his travels with prolonged work orientated stays in cities such as Bangkok, Beijing and Shanghai.

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Moloch City Series – Cat - Katze, 36 x 27 cm, Watercolor/Sketchbooks, 2018, Private Collection

Cat – Katze

I push aside the heavy, brown curtains. The glare of daylight blinds me. The air conditioner whirs loudly. I look at the block of flats opposite. Some residents have strung their colourful laundry out to dry on rusty iron bars.

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Moloch City Series - The Voice - Die Stimme, 36 x 27 cm, Watercolor/Sketchbooks, 2018, Private Collection

The Voice – Die Stimme

A whisper, soft and insistent, talks to me, burying into my sub-conscious, my thought processes are confused, I see an unknown space in the sky, a narrow strip of light, I am flying in a dream, clouds float, driven by the wind, white mountains tower higher and higher.

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Moloch City Series - City - Stadt, 36 x 27 cm, Watercolor/Sketchbooks, 2018, Private Collection

City – Stadt

Houses collapsing. Towers winding up into the sky. People run without orientation on the streets. Where am I? Daylight blinds me. I stand at the exit of a metro station and look at intersections, bridges, underpasses and overpasses, I see streets swimming in a sea of houses and have to turn away.

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