LÉOPOLD

RABUS

AND FAMILY

Galerie Michael Haas presents large-format paintings by Léopold Rabus, together with works by his brother, Till and their parents, Alex and Renate. The familylives in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Léopold Rabus (*1977) traces the life and fate of his protagonists unsparingly, yet full of empathy, and often with a glimmer of black humour. We could probably find the scenes of these stories featuring a mostly poor, even dilapidated environment of lonely people almost anywhere. However, the actions of the men and the women are always disturbing even when only their traces are visible and they themselves are not, such as in the landscape paintings. Léopold Rabus studied in 1993/1994 at the Art School de Meuron, Neuchâtel and in 1994 at the École d’Art Chaux-de-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds. The artist has exhibited his paintings, installations and sculptures in galleries and museums for over 15 years.
Amongst his numerous solo exhibitions was a touring exhibition in 2009/2010, with stops at the GEM, Museum for Contemporary Art, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, the Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen in Switzerland and the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven.

In a hyperrealistic manner, Léopold’s brother Till (*1975) raises incidental items and consumer products (at times after they have been discarded as waste) to the status of objects worthy of depiction by rearranging them andbringing them back into the focus of our perception. His recent ‘orgy’ still lifes, painted in a baroque fashion and full of erotic references, are particularly humorous. The large-format, surreal paintings with exceptionally small-scale narratives by their father, Alex (*1944) address questions on the future of mankind and nature. Their mother, Renate (*1950)presents embroidered images made with the highest precision of holy martyrs, and assemblages that depict Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’.