Andy Denzler Born 1965 in Zurich, Switzerland

Lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland

Andy Denzler (*1965) was born in Zurich where he lives and works. He obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London in 2006.

Photography has been at the center of Denzler’s creative process. Until recently, he has been using photographs of urban creatives and street sceneries as a reference, often in conjunction with collage. With this technique, Denzler created scenes on the canvas that contained intimate spaces that evoked feelings of voyeurism and allowed the viewer interpretations out of a distant perspective. The subjects in Denzler’s paintings were placed in introspective and toned-down settings in which they appeared to mysteriously phase in and out of their present and their past. He paints them with an understated sensibility for intimacy and nostalgia.

In his recent work, Denzler expands his subject of distorted realities and opens up the canvas as well as the narrative of his paintings. Instead of urban individuals in their respective sceneries, he uses vintage photographs and classic movies - what the artist describes as our collective memory - as sources for the motifs in his paintings. While human figures remain at the core of his painterly exploration, he paints them in combination with bold, expressive brush strokes that strongly evoke American abstract expressionists of the 1950s and the European Neue Wilde of the 1970s and 80s. Since 2022 his works have navigated this neo-expressionist mannerism by alternating between his familiar muted, earthy colors and newly included brightly colored plains and lines in free-flowing shapes within his compositions.

In his artistic practice, Denzler has been inherently driven to creatively express himself through various media - be it in his teenage years as a trained graphic designer, followed by his comprehensive activities as a landscape and street photographer, or as a producer of his own music.

It was not until his late twenties that he realized that painting was his preferred medium to express all layers of visual and sensual elements belonging to the emotional, spiritual, and social issues he aimed to convey. It was then that he shifted his artistic activities from photography to painting, combining the two. In all of his creative undertakings, he meticulously learned the technical skills involved to precisely execute his artistic vision. This ambition was due to a deep personal respect for each respective artistic craft.

Denzler’s paintings symbolize both a personal consideration about the passage of time, what stays behind, and a painter’s sovereign ability to provide spaces for projection. It is an invitation to engage in an open dialogue with his work and give the viewer the opportunity to discover a deeper meaning on a more personal level.

Andy Denzler’a works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in Europe, the United States and Asia in private and public institutions including the Gwangju Museum of Art, the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, the Ludwig Galerie Schloss in Oberhausen, the Kunsthalle in Rostock, in Germany and he recently had a major retrospective at the Kunstforum in Vienna. In 2015, Denzler participated in the 6th Beijing international Biennale and in 2016, at the 6th Marrakech Biennale. His work is part of major collections including the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, the David Roberts Art Foundation in London, the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art, the MOMA Moscow, as well as the Museum Würth in Schwäbisch Hall, in Germany, the Burger Collection in Hong Kong and the White Cube Collection in London.