Batt Coop / Galerie P38
Feelings aren't Final - Stefan Marx

Published by PLUS-ONE Gallery, 2016
52 pages, 24 x 16 cm, Paperback, English

‘Feelings aren’t final’ was published on the occasion of the exhibition at PLUS-ONE Gallery.
Stefan Marx' primary medium is drawing, which can manifest itself in widely diverging contexts. He produces not only classical sheets but also record covers, T-Shirts, skateboards, or small magazines, which he produces and publishes on his own by simple means. The individual, who in the group if not in the mass becomes an almost graphic element, is a repeated theme. But far from being pessimistic, these drawings and water colors are an expression of societal, of social structures experienced in a wide range of scenes, be it fans of a particular music or the skateboard community, to mention only a few. Not least of all through their loose stroke, Marx’ drawings express an energy and dynamism in tune with contemporary living conditions, to which they react and on which they comment. To some extent, the commentary takes literal form in cryptic slogans full of latent irony. Marx’ works have a double texture. They are borne by a dynamic immediacy and abrupt aesthetic with ironic undertones. Significantly, however, the statements they convey are never isolated but always combined to form a whole. The drawings, T shirts, magazines, and water colors express everyday experiences and moments processed in critical detachment, but always accepting the self as part of the same everyday world. His work thus transcends traditional boundaries, making no distinction between street culture and high culture, between free and applied art.