David Czupryn

Czupryn obtained a BFA under Georg Herold (2011), a Meisterbrief under Lucy McKenzie (2011-2013), and an MFA under Tomma Abts (2015), all from Düsseldorf Kunstakademie.[4]

Czupryn’s work is dedicated to the exploration of the uncanny,[5] a feeling that was analysed by Sigmund Freud in his seminal essay ‘The Uncanny’[6](1919). Arising from a mixture of horror and familiarity, mostly common in dreams, Freud referred to it as “something long known to us, once very familiar”[7] but, at the same time, “that ought to have remained […] hidden and secret and has become visible”.[8] In Czupryn's work, the uncanny takes the form of humanoid hybrids, which are made of materials that resemble naturalistic patterns and man-made polymers. Although the details of Czupryn’s paintings are hyper-realistic, the overall image is surrealistic, evoking the atmosphere of dreams and imagination. The characters of his paintings’ narrative, usually inspired by acquaintances of the artist, are transformed into machine-like figures whose body is fragmented in independent sections made of natural and artificial elements. In his hypersensitivity to the deconstruction of bodies, and to how bodily parts form a consistent whole, Czupryn’s paintings are reminiscent of Samuel Beckett literary enquiry.[9] The difference between the two, however, lies in the fact that for Beckett the dissection of bodies is a way to represent or allude to death, while for Czupryn, it is an attempt to confer a sense of life to the inanimate subjects of his paintings. Although Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico are important reference points for Czupryn, his main sources of inspiration are the photographer Diane Arbus and American artist Matthew Barney.

Thanks to his meticulous, multi-layered technique, his paintings appear flat and digital-like, and the brushstrokes are almost invisible. A further way to achieve flatness is to employ a specific form of lighting - famously used by the photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher - as if it were noon and cloudy. In the guise of an architectural setting, which can narrow or broaden the format of the canvas, the background is usually the first element to be painted by Czupryn. In this way, the characters in the foreground seem to be protruding from the frame in the direction of the viewer, calling for his involvement in the narrative of the portrait.[10]

Strange Time (International art exhibition in the virtual space curated by Stepan Ryabchenko), 2020[11]

He She It (solo), Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt (Germany), 2018[12]

The World's Your Oyster, ARTUNER at Palazzo Capris, Turin, Italy, 2018

FSSR, Geneve, 2017

Figure of Speech, ARTUNER at Cassina Projects, New York, 2016

David Czupryn, Kunstmuseum Solingen, 2016

Do Boomerangs Always Come Back, Kasteel d’Aspremont-Lynden (Belgium), 2016

So I turned myself to face me: David Czupryn, Tony Matelli, Charlie Roberts, Jackie Saccoccio, Marlborough Contemporary Gallery, 2016

Stealth and Days, Maschinenhaus Essen, Essen, 2015

Imagine (Group Show curated by Tomma Abts and Alastair MacKinven), Londondonewcastle Projectspace, London, 2015

Die mit der Liebe spielen, Palazzo Guaineri delle Cossere, A+B Gallery, Brescia, 2014