Stefanie Gutheil

2008–2019

Ästhetische Mutationen als malerische Weltentwürfe

The protagonists in Stefanie Gutheil’s (b. Ravensburg, 1980; lives and works in Berlin) paintings are her personal monsters. They appear in the form of creatures wearing scold’s bridles, hungry crocodile-dinosaur hybrids, cats, skinned bodies, sex-club denizens, worm-eaten chimeras that are half human, half animal, or hordes of affable phalluses. The spaces she composes often resemble surreal mobiles or towers in which these figures, many of them sexless, become Gutheil’s alter egos. Her mastery of her medium is on display in paintings executed in vigorous brushwork and raised areas of oil paint that weave in far-flung references to the works of Picasso, Philip Guston, or Hieronymus Bosch. Beyond the political dimension of queer emancipation, Gutheil invites us to explore the world of a vivid puerile imagination, which she deftly contrasts with the arid earnestness of heteronormative lifestyles. The extensive monograph is the first to document her creative approach and humorous engagement with the demons of our time and covers her work from 2008 through 2019. With essays by Larissa Kikol and Ingo Clauß.