I intend to reach a state that is ambiguous and allows all sorts of interpretations.
-Georg Herold
Georg Herold is a German conceptual artist who challenges the conventions of high art. Using simple building materials, he creates work that is often interpreted as off kilter and ironic. His art elicits surprise, confusion, and laughter from those who are hit with his brazenly tongue-in-cheek socio-political subtext.
He rarely produces multiples as his work tends toward large sculptural or mixed media constructions. The Lapis Press is honored to have produced several diverse editions with Georg Herold, presenting a rare opportunity to own art by an artist of his stature. With work in major private and public collections worldwide, Herold is one of the most important and influential artists of his generation. Weekend Ü, a print featuring one of his manikin sculptures: an alien, defiant, and distorted version of the human form. It bisects stridently saturated blocks of color in a Socialist realism style recalling Herold's East German roots. The title is a play on language combining a typical American word with a typical German sound. Said aloud, it becomes "we can do," either a stirring propaganda phrase or positive affirmation, depending on one's politics.
Surface is one of Herold's celebrated brick paintings where a two dimensional painting is greatly challenged by three dimensional stacks of bricks aggressively gripping its surface. The perpetually running iPod video, LAX Bolero, is a continuation of his Mini-TVs-media series exploring the presentation, content, and materials of the genre with deadpan wit. Herold's oeuvre is created from great skill and insight. His use of materials is unsettling and compelling in the way it pulls at our established way of interpreting art, especially the notion of taking art too seriously. Like the craft used to write a good joke or tell a compelling story, there is a craft in how Herold constructs works of art that integrate humor with social and aesthetic commentary.