The thrill of speed, the aesthetic quality of destruction, and the fascination of overcoming physical limitations: these are the central themes in the art of Dirk Skreber (b. Lubeck 1961; lives and works in New York), which shows the strong influence of media images the artist isolates in exaggerated renditions, as though trying to exorcise their power to shock. Keeping dynamism and static structure in precarious balance, the works lift the beholder from his own reality and involve him in the scenario. Skreber paints landscapes in large formats as well as semiabstract figures; he makes fearsome sculptures out of cars that were used in crash tests and creates giant installations that take up entire rooms. The artist has also increasingly used film as a medium to stage the theme of the catastrophe in new ways. He slows down a car accident that, in reality, takes 3.19 seconds to thirty minutes to make it look like a supernova. With essays by Joachim Bessing, Will Heinrich, Dirk Skreber, and Christian Wassmann.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Dirk Skreber. NDAA* Der Na(h)tanz-Hummer II, at Leopold-hoesch-Museum & Papiermuseum Düren June 3 - August 12, 2012.