Patrick Graf is a storyteller and fantasist, his paintings, drawings, diaries and installations emerge from a universe of their own under the influence of comics, cartoons, TV, art history, advertising and trash. Patrick Graf’s pictures show over-excited figures in bright colours, in a kind of contemporary folklore. In the aesthetics of American comics – exaggerated characters in a brutal, noisy world – the pictures, sculptures and comics tell of a violent society corrupted by consumerism in a naive and colourful manner. Outcast freaks, stupid television consumers and tortured beauties provide a clear view of the range of human abysses.
During the exhibition, Patrick Graf will use finished and unfinished items from his studio – paintings, objects, videos, waste, texts, fabrics and technical equipment – in a sprawling work-in-progress installation in the basement of Perla-Mode to create a show stage on which he invites the audience to the ultimate hip-hop show on 14 September as the star of the evening. The audience can expect an entertaining Gesamtkunstwerk performance with play, music, text, video, costume and scenery.
The zine “Ein Pfiffiges Baby” will be published by Nieves to accompany the exhibition.
“Ein Pfiffiges Baby” 12 Pages, 14 x 20 cm, b/w Photocopy, First Edition 2011, 150 Copies, Nieves, Zürich