Within the framework of the Manor Art Prize Andriu Deplazes (*1993, Zürich) has his most comprehensive solo exhibition so far. Besides his oil paintings he shows, for the first time, works on paper. The major grant is awarded this young artist who as an attentive observer of our time presents a highly independent oeuvre of paintings and drawings.

In his images the artist, with roots in Graubünden, creates a dreamlike world between apocalypse and the Garden of Eden. In the colour rapture of his oil paintings we can see misshapen humans and tumescent plants. Bodies reveal themselves as empty shells. Fruits decay in straggly forests. In the echo of Peter Doig’s inscrutable landscapes or of Max Ernst’s surrealist plant-beings, Andriu Deplazes’ paintings cast a network of associations concerning present-day questions.

Sexuality or terrorism appear most notably as tangible themes in the drawings. A recurring motif is the female suicide bomber with Burka and explosive belt. Deplazes depicts her as ready to use violence and as simultaneously vulnerable, and thereby reveals an existential contradiction. The artist shows androgynous creatures acting out undiscriminating lust and allows them to lose themselves therein free from any moral conventions. Despite their distinct motifs the works are impervious to real occurrences. In their restriction to the Fragile and the Fleeting his works on paper, in fact, expose our own deep-set inner images. Directly and urgently they create their own reality which functions beyond the borderline of the drawing.

Accompanying the exhibition is a richly illustrated catalogue published by the Verlag für modern Kunst with contributions by Julie Enckell-Julliard, Damian Jurt and Stephan Kunz