With his life-hungry and colorful painting, Fausto illustrates personal impressions and experiences. His painting is honest and at times ruthless, both in the figurative style of painting and in the choice of subjects: in addition to landscape paintings, his focus lays on portraits of naked men, sometimes with erections, and on depictions of gay sex. In his pictures of men, Fausto portrays friends from his environment, from the gym or from Berlin parties. In the elaborately arranged sex scenes (recreated with models in the studio and painted during multiple sessions), he recreates his own experiences as he would consider them in “typical” representations of the Berlin subculture.
„That’s just what I am really interested in. There is also no reason at all to sublimate gay sex – or sex at all – in painting through abstraction. I paint it exactly as I experienced it or as I see my model. I’m painting this because I think it’s beautiful and because it’s fun. Incidentally, each subject in a painting is deprived of its (pornographic) sharpness solely by the fact that it is painted. It would be wrong to assign these representations to a niche. They belong just as much in the general public eye as paintings of hunting scenes, battles or crucifixions. Painting – especially figurative, representational painting – is pure enchantment: each subject is detracted from its real context by painting and raised to a more neutral, artificial level, which makes it possible for viewers without personal reference to the object to appreciate the honesty of feeling in painting. A photo can’t do that. As a photo, the same topic would simply be pornography.“
The landscapes also seem like intimate observations, lustful. The creative process is similarly complex: Fausto studies the landscapes on site while traveling in many drawings, watercolors and gouache studies. In the studio, an oil painting would be later derived from the documented impressions.
OSTERSPAZIERGANG is the first solo exhibition of the Berlin-based artist, who was born in 1972.
This show is paralleled by the group show INSTINCT.BERLIN at the VILLAGE, Kurfürstenstrasse 31 where more works of Fausto can be seen from April 14th through 23rd.
Fausto’s work will also be presented at APELBAUM pop up gallery during Gallery weekend Berlin: opening April 28th 8pm at Anomalie Club, Strorkower Strasse 123.
