Stephan Grunenberg

Stephan Grunenberg (b. 1954) paints peculiar portraits: not heads or sitting and reclining figures but seemingly independent feet, legs, trousers, socks or soles of shoes. These and other under-appreciated motives are playfully arranged in captivating compositions which take issue with our hierarchical habits while looking at art. “ Leaving out the ‘ civilized’ , educated head and centering on neglected parts such as the legs, including the lower abdomen— which is either eroticized or made taboo— is the artist’ s point” , writes Oliver Koerner von Gustorf in an essay that accompanies the images inside this small and attractive new book. The paintings reproduced in this volume were all exhibited in Grunenberg’ s latest exhibition in 2024, which was titled tongue-in-cheek „ Representatives Regional To Earth.”