Hans-Peter Stark uses a lot of paint in his painting, which is applied thickly to the canvas. Sometimes the material is even pressed directly from the tube onto the canvas. In the process, what would otherwise be described as a brushstroke becomes a ridge of oil paint on the canvas. These color ridges become lines that essentially define Hans-Peter Stark’s paintings. These color strokes can be very disciplined and subordinate to the structure of the motif. Contour and interior drawing are thus indicated. But the lines can also sit more unrestrainedly on the picture or fulfill their own, space-giving functions. They develop their own dynamic, which seems like a small breach of the rules within this painting. Considered, cultivated freedom is the result.

In this respect, Hans-Peter Stark’s painting contains a certain ambiguity, which consists in the fact that it is consistent painting, which goes as far as to understand the color as a material. On the other hand, this conception is used to implement quite clearly graphic aspects.

Hans-Peter Stark’s conception of space in his paintings is also at times determined by ambiguity. Color fields and color edges that seem abstract at first glance become walls and spatial edges that stagger the pictorial space. In the process, Hans-Peter Stark repeatedly changes the painting style from the pastose, almost modeling color application to a flat, thinner painting.

The formal aspects of this painting are one thing, the other is the thematic world of Hans-Peter Stark. And here the painter is a child of his time: he does not seek to capture retrospective or eternal associations. It is more the visual world of pop culture that is traced here and elaborated into a painting. Echoes of record covers, band recordings are noticeable, but also the eternal hero of pop culture, the cowboy is paid tribute to. Film stills, comics, the most diverse references are awakened in the viewer. And this is the point where these images become interesting on another level, showing that the boundaries within our visual world are becoming more and more blurred. Adaptation, quotations of images from a wide variety of sources and their formal languages become a broad canon of images from which to draw. What they all have in common is the image aesthetic, which is determined by the mediated image. Attitude and pose are just as important as image cropping and collage – “image sampling”.

In this sense, Hans-Peter Stark brings the most important aspects of contemporary painting to the point in his painting, both in terms of content and form.

1996  New York City; Guitarist at dt.-amerik. Rockband ‘The Merry Pranksters’
2002 Toulouse, Ecole Supériere des Beaux-Arts
2004  Master Student at the Academie for Visual Arts, Mainz
2011  Worked in Villa Concordia, Bamberg

Solo Exhibition (Selection)

2017
Autogene Wolken, Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop

2015
Out Of A Wall, Kunstverein Erlangen, Erlangen
Tramping Songs, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt/Main
Reading The Walls, Galerie Katrin Hiestand, Landau

2013
he Real Star, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main
Ins Innere der Dünung, Kunstverein Neustadt a.d.W.

2012
Die Membran rotiert, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main
Bis ins Hier, Galerie Katrin Hiestand, Landau

2011
Mitunter rosa Atemluft, Galeriehaus Nord, Nürnberg
Hundertvierzig Quintillionen Grad, Alte Schmiede Kunstverein, Wien (mit Tobias Falberg)
Urbane Bildräume/Klanräume 1, Projektgalerie Rottstrasse 5, Bochum

2010
Fluency is Compilation, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main

2009
Swings like a dog’s tail wagging, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main (K)

2007
The tune of gathering, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main

2006
Organize a Movement, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main
Colour Dis Play, Kunstverein Worms, Worms
Like a brilliant Life, Kunstverein Schwetzingen, Schwetzingen
Helden des Alltags, Kunstverein Germersheim, Gemersheim

2005
Desperado-Colorado, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main

2004
Junge Kunst 9, Kunstforum Rheinhessen (mit Nikola Jaensch)

2003
wHaT´s wRoNg?, Galerie starsonstripes, Hamburg

2002
Malerei, Brigitte March Galerie, Stuttgart (mit Sabine Pfeiffer)

2001
u gOt mY NuMbeR…, Brigitte March Galerie, Stuttgart

2000
u gOOd iF u cO@L…, Brigitte March Galerie, Stuttgart

1999
Premiere, Brigitte March Galerie, Stuttgart

Group Exhibition (Selection)

2018
Mixed Tapes, Kosmetiksalon Babette, Berlin (kuratiert von Hans-Peter Stark)
Babette’s Best Records Unlimited, Kosmetiksalon Babette, Berlin
100, Galerie Axel Obiger, Berlin
Auftakt, Berlin-Weekly, Berlin

2017
Landesvertretung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern beim Bund, Berlin
Portrait des Galeristen, Galerie Axel Obiger, Berlin

2016
Galeriehaus Nord, Nürnberg
Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop

2014
Nacht der Museen 2014: Montez im Exil – Ende einer Wanderausstellung,
Kunstverein Fam. Montez/Frankfurt am Main (K)
Wurzeln weit mehr Aufmerksamkeit widmen (8), Kunstwerk Köln, Köln

2013
Wurzeln weit mehr Aufmerksamkeit widmen (7), Muggenhofer Straße, Nürnberg
Wurzeln weit mehr Aufmerksamkeit widmen (6), Museum Lytke, Leipzig
Wurzeln weit mehr Aufmerksamkeit widmen (5), MyVisit.to – Berlin und SHIFT Berlin,
Berlin Art Week
Wurzeln weit mehr Aufmerksamkeit widmen (4), POLY, Karlsruhe
1440 Minutes New York City, Galerie Katrin Hiestand, Landau,(mit Peyman Azhari und Sam Hanchett)
Eurovisionen, Rinckenhof, Zweibrücken

2012
With Her Last Breath, Galerie Alessandra Nobilia, Mainz

2011
Galeriehaus Nord, Nürnberg
Snow White, Galerie Alessandra Nobilia, Mainz (K)
Galerie Katrin Hiestand, Landau

2010
Animal Art, Kunstverein Schwetzingen, Schwetzingen

2009
Menschenbilder 1620/2009 – Zeitgenössische Bildnisse begegnen alten niederländischen Portraits, Museum Abtei Liesborn, Wadersloh

2008
Fieber tief in den Taschen, Schloß Waldthausen, Mainz (K)
Kunstpreis des Landkreises Trier-Saarburg, Europäische Kunstakademie Trier (K)

2007
FLUT_LICHT, Kunstforum Rheinhessen/Altes Rathaus, Ingelheim

2005
Bologna Flash Art Show, Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery, Turin
Milano Flash Art Show, Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery, Turin

2004
schluß mit cool, Altes Polizeipräsidium, Frankfurt am Main

2001
Bosch Förderpreis WORKART, Flughafen Stuttgart
2000 Genre-Painting, G7, Berlin

Scholarships, Preises and Nominations

2008 Arbeitsstipendium im Künstlerhaus Lukas für 2010, gefördert durch das
Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
2002 Salzburg-Stipendium der Stadt Mainz
2001 Bosch WORKART Förderpreis, 3. Preis

Works in public and private Collections

Regierungspräsidium / Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung
Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, Artothek
Galerie der Stadt Fellbach
Kunstsammlungen der Stadt Mainz
Sammlung SØR