Falk Gernegroß' works are concerned with aspects of contemporary femininity. He looks at images of women produced in the contested area between everyday phenomena and taboos: pinup girls, disco queens, stuckup females, Lolitas. The aesthetics of trivial massmedia provide the visual material for his subjects. Gernegroß extracts models and poses from these commonplace images and paints them in front of charming landscapes. He effectively recontextualizes these images by employing both the light and shade aesthetics and the glazing techniques of Renaissance painters. On the one hand, Gernegroß' female nudes in evening or night time moods are related to the Venus depictions of Cranach or Manet  both arthistoric predecessors of great common approval. On the other hand  with the models' frivolous and flirtatious poses being lighted from an unknown source located somewhere in the foreground Gernegroß' compositions appear like sets designed for amateur erot! ica, softporn productions or private homevideos, widespread phenomena which reflect both popular clichés and romantic ideals. Are these the fantasies of each and every man? However, Gernegroß is neither interested in the exposure of the female model, nor in the exposure of the male observer; he is too deeply involved in this situation himself. What is of greater interest is the ancient yet always up to date game played by model and observer, its contemporary forms and images. In combining allusions to art history with the circulating visual conventions of erotica in his paintings, Gernegroß creates a new frame of reference for both fields. It is from this often tongueincheek mixture of high and low culture that Gernegroß' paintings gain their tension.

 1973 born in Marienberg. Since 2001 Painting Course at The Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Lives and works in Leipzig.

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