Denise Rudolf Frank: Diary

NBB Gallery
May 13 - June 7, 2021

Wild painting sprawls across the canvas, strong, unmixed colours in direct, sometimes impasto application are arranged in abstract or representational formations. The artistic volume is turned up, literally all hell is lose.

In every case, the source of these painted sounds is the artistic personality itself, who listens into itself and draws from itself. The painterly act happens spontaneously, impulsive and like in a dream, as to

bring to light as much unfiltered content from the subconscious. This creates an emotional diary on the canvas, a reflection of state of mind and emotion. The canvas, lying on the floor, picks up the first emotional explosions. Further steps help to clarify what previously emerged as an eruption. This painting functions as a vent for strong emotions, which are transferred onto the canvas. Head shapes are often superimposed on abstract layers like monsters, who emerge from the inner fear. These are literally retained in the painting and are thus defused through painting.

Denise Rudolf Frank studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in the class of Daniel Richter and Kirsi Mikkola. Both teachers have a strong, offensively used colour scheme. After her training at the Central

Saint Martin College in London, her paintings became increasingly calm and at ease. This playful serenity corresponds with the ‘Naïve paintings’, that can currently be observed at English art academies. Her works combine diverse elements from her childhood with humorous distorted experiences. The playful lightness of her painting is unable to veneer an occasional serious and also dark reality in her pictures. Her artistic origins ultimately lie in art therapy. The determined processing of a complicated childhood is one of the driving forces of this art.

All of her works are concerned with visual energy, this force that can so easily be destroyed by a simple brushstroke. It talks about the power and lightness that comes to be through technical prowess.

Here, the naiveté of the painting symbolises closeness to the origin and especially unbridled authenticity.

Thanks to her unreserved and detourless opening towards the painting and her fearless creative sovereignty, Denise Rudolf Frank is without a doubt one of the greatest young talents of our time.

– Ecker Berthold