Self-Portrait With Action Figure
Gabriel Grün is a Magic Realist and Ultra-Contemporary Figurative painter born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1978.
He identifies as a member of the Dark Art Movement
, a contemporary descendent of the Surrealist Movement with a focus on the incorporation of black for Chiaroscuro and the use of dream logic to draw upon darker interpretations of the human experience.
In Grün's case, he works predominantly as a Figure painter, depicting the human body using techniques of the Rennaissance and Baroque masters in a matter that borders on the grotesque.
Grün has no official website of his own, but his work can be seen on various public websites, including his Facebook page, Macabre Gallery, Artfacts and blogspot.
Tropes found in Grün and his work:
- Bat People: Murciélago features a human man with wings anatomically similar to that of a bat pinned to a surface with pins in a manner similar to a crucified Jesus.
- Body Horror: A lot of his paintings add something extra to the figures (like bat wings or superflous genitals) as commentary on real-world issues.
- Fan Disservice: Nude figures as a tradition tend to evoke some erotic connotations by their very nature. While some of Grün's paintings fall prey to this, there are others that purposefully subvert this through a mix of Body Horror and general surrealness.
- La Pequeña Peluda features a vaguely androgynous figure with long red hair that drapes not unlike Sandro Botticelli's Venus. The hair on their head is cut fairly short, with the drapery flowing from their armpits and pubes.
- La Pequeña Aracné features a woman with three sets of legs, the curvature of her buttocks molding into two other bottoms that connect with the four extra legs.
- Metamorphosis into Gruyere Cheese features a nude woman who's body is covered with holes that evoke swiss cheese.
- Tacto (Touch) features a bald, nude woman absolutely covered in spare nipples.
- Arache features a hairless woman with exposed breasts and genitals with four arms and four legs. If that doesn't turn you off, her disapproving gaze staring right at the viewer will.
- Fauns and Satyrs: Satyr features a standing female figure with goat legs that evokes the classic faun or satyr.
- Mythical Motifs: Much like the Classical Movement he borrows so heavily from, a lot of his paintings pay direct homage to Classical Mythology.
- Our Nymphs Are Different: Ninfa en el estanque (Nymph in the Pond) features a red-headed woman (presumably the nymph) staring at her own reflection in a pond.
- Reclining Venus: The Big Halatea and The Small Galatea both feature female nudes reclining against a pastoral backdrop in a manner similar to Sleeping Venus and Alexandre Cabanel's The Birth of Venus.
- The Weird Sisters: Parcas features nude, red-headed triplets handing a singular thread of gold in a manner that evokes The Fates from Classical Mythology.
