Ralf Ziervogel

With concentration and reduction as formal principles, Ralf Ziervogel’s drawings combine organic flow with structured, fractal, almost obsessive forms. His works often depict sequences in which mangled human bodies interact with each other in a frenzied, fetishistic manner. At first, the artist’s drawings are evocative of romantics such as Goya and Gericault with their portrayals of infernal scenarios and human bodies, but for Ziervogel it is always about the detail, the aesthetic and the system. His constructions are more architectural than fantastical and in this way more akin to Neo-Dadaist thinking; he is not trying to change our perception of the world with his work, but merely point out elements which already exist within it.

Ziervogel has had solo exhibitions at Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Wien, and The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Malmö Konsthall, Museum of Contemporary Art in Nîmes, Anna Akhmatova Museum in St. Petersburg, and DESTE Foundation in Athens.

Courtesy of Carbon 12