Adrian Ghenie is a painter from Romania. His works are typically figurative, though often these figures are built up out of abstracted brush marks, or obscured with swipes of multi-colored paint. Ghenie’s works are often extremely large, taking up almost the space of an entire wall.

I like how dramatically lit Ghenie’s studio space is in this photograph – while he probably doesn’t work in this light all the time, something about this image really makes it seem like the artist is concocting a truly epic image. It also lends the space a warmer look than the stark white lighting normally associated with artist’s studios – I can more readily imagine that this space is in Ghenie’s home, and he’s spending a late night putting finishing touches on his work.

The size of the painting that Ghenie is working on is pretty imposing. The artist must have a ladder in order to reach the top of the work – or perhaps he lays the work on the floor to create larger brush marks across the entire surface. Even in the dark lighting of this photograph, the floor looks quite covered in paint, like the ultra-messy studio space of Joyce Pensato. It’s always fun to see an artist who gets their studio space totally covered in paint.

I’m curious about the stack of what looks like small canvases piled up on the table to the left of the artist. Maybe these are sketches for the current work, or for another idea that is yet to be fully formed.

Ghenie studied art at the University of Art and Design in Cluj, Romania. He currently works in both Cluj, and Berlin, Germany – though his artworks are featured in collections and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. 

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