STANDPUNKT: Christian Hahn

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In his new pictures Christian Hahn shows no fear of strong contrasts: polar bears meet colibris and science fiction monsters from remote galaxies. His large-format compositions – bold in their colours, wild in their combinations – shift between digital room conception and virtuoso painting.

Christian Hahn belongs to the generation which grew up with the gameboy. »I was fascinated by new realities which were simulated by the computer. Comics, Star Wars, fantasy-films – I was enthralled by everything that creates a new scenery, discloses new spaces that are unreal but at the same time employ elements of reality.« Hahn grasped his interest and his talent with both hands and first studied to be an illustrator at the Fachhochschule für Kommunikationsdesign in his birthplace Nuremberg and later in Hamburg where he decided, in 1993, to study painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst. His teachers there were Olav Christopher Jenssen and Werner Büttner.

Hahn's technique is virtually like that of the old masters: he applies oil paint on nettle fabric and arranges his compositions in several glaze layers. Traces of brushwork can be so concealed that one can recognize his painting technique only from a close-up.

Christian Hahn has been on show in several galleries and exhibiting institutions such as the Kunstverein Hamburg, the Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig and the Lothringer 13 in Munich, as well as at the galleries Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg, Johnen & Schöttle, Köln/München and Entwistle, London. His works are also in the Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg and the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen.

This exhibition as part of the series »Standpoint« which is dedicated to young art from Hamburg will show a large, room-filling mural as well as a group of new paintings executed especially for this exhibition - amongst these a composition XXL.

A booklet for 3 € will accompany the exhibition.