'Chromosomes' (Detail), from the series The Bodybody-Problem, Oil on Canvas (Photo: P. Borchardt) thirtyseven degrees - Contemporary Fine Art Gallery is eager to present Berlin based, Austrian artist Clemens Krauss. Studying in both London and Berlin, Krauss has developed a conceptually complex approach in revealing the globalization of identity, particularly the disjointed and posed nature of today’s youth. His foremost concern being, to visualize the situation of the body in a contemporary setting.

Over the past two years, Krauss has worked directly on walls, blurring the boundaries between performer, conceptualist and painter. One of his most unique, being an installation on the walls of the bunker under Treptow Arena in 2005. In 2007, Krauss took up a residency at Artspace in Woolloomooloo. This exhibition is the product of his time spent in Australia and marks his return to canvas.

His practice begins with a collection of images from a variety of sources- texts, notes, perceptions, investigations, and sketches. The image then evolves from his choice of a specific moment, giving birth to a constructed moment of interaction. Single, grouped and paired figures awkwardly socialise on stark white canvases. Each individual is anonymous, the face distorted by profuse layers of paint. It is the body language and uniform like, bold coloured t-shirts that provide the space with diversity.

Krauss is concerned with “what happens with the isolated figure in the anonymous mass.” Flatness is rejected, each moulded figure entering the space of the viewer, challenging their initial perception. Krauss zooms in with a bird’s eye view, the figures at first glance, an ambiguous, metamorphosed mass, then with closer observation, interacting peoples. Volume gives life to the figures, provoking a curiosity and desire to pull back the layers of paint, and further reveal the 21st century perplexities of individuality, globalization and
identity.

Clemens Krauss’s work is now introduced to the Australian public for the first time by Dominik Mersch at thirtyseven degrees – Contemporary Fine Art Gallery Gallery