EXHIBITION: Karel Funk at NextLevel Galerie, Paris
Karel Funk
at NextLevel Galerie, Paris
through January 14th, 2017
Once again Isabelle Mesnil continues to impose her sharpened eye in her gallery with an astonishing exhibition of acrylic on panel. This is the very first Paris solo show for Canadian-based artist Karel Funk.
The hyper realism of the design makes us hesitate at first glance with a photography but it’s not. It is acrylic on wood which implicates layers and layers of paint and in addition a super meticulous detailed design. For the exhibition Isabelle Mesnil chose mostly the new Funk’s work where he removed the faces to keep only the hood. The result is an astonishing surrealistic hyper realist design from which emanates an aura.
Why do we feel that aura, that undefined presence of the owner of the hood? because by exploring just the surface of his subject -every detail of the folds of a fabric, its inclination, its shadows, its light- Funk does the opposite of rendering the surface, he brings out the soul of his subject. Also, Funk used to paint many human figures and he learned about each personae hidden beneath the hood and he doesn’t need to show the figure any more.
Beatrice Chassepot – Los Angeles December 2016
HIS PROCESS, HIS INTEREST IN REALISM etc…
Karel Funk CV
Canadian, born in 1971
Lives and works in Winnipeg, Canada
Funk’s work is held in major museum collections, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dallas Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada, as well as many private collections.
EDUCATION
2003
MFA Columbia University
1997
BFA University of Manitoba
