2025-2026
4.3. Vernissage - 5.3. - 7.3. Daily actions 17h - 21 h
Atelier - Galerie H.M. STARK, Kohlgasse 51, top 2, 1050 Vienna
Transforming stress into positive energy.
Sodom and Gomorrah in art!
ClemK & friends Sodom und Gomorrha in Atelier - Galerie Stark
4.3. – 7.3.26
The toxic apocalypse of Sodom and Gomorrha cannot destroy art. Art heals. Internally. Relentlessly. It gives structure to chaos, strengthens resilience, acts as emotional recovery, as prescription medicine, transforms stress into positive energy, leads us out of everyday misery.
ClemK`s wild freestyle portraits of MOTHER EARTH reflect an ambitious film that he was unable to make during his film career. “Mother Earth in intensive care – Let's take her out.” Now he has painted it. A garishly battered creature looks down on us. Lamenting, chaotic, yet full of kindness, gentleness, and warmth. A cry of outrage.
Herwig Maria Stark. The most subtle of the three. His views are romantically sad, yet full of hope. He invites his viewers to reflect on their own emotions and experiences, to identify with the characters depicted. His works radiate a universal humanity. Stark knows how to bridge the gap between the outer and inner worlds. Through his art, he creates a connection that transcends language and culture.
Helmut Sagmeister. Seine faszinierend expressiven Fotomontagen interpretieren Sodom und Gomorrha als inneren Zustand. Nicht der göttliche Zorn zerstört die Stadt, sondern der Mensch selbst. Die Bilder zeigen keinen historischen Ort, sondern einen Prozess: Verführung, Verdrängung, süße Zerstörung, Erstarrung und Leere. Die brennende Stadt wächst aus dem Körper. Der Untergang beginnt im Inneren.
Boris Manner (Die Angewandte, Anselm Kiefer) opens on 4.3.
ClemK's Pop-Up Atelier, Kurrentgasse 1010 Wien
3. September 2025
Art World Fairs welcome ClemK in AWParis 2025
"In times when artificial intelligence and technological progress seem to dominate every aspect of our lives, Clemens K’s (@clemk.art) art stands as a vibrant and colourful counterpoint—a reminder of the importance of nature, inner balance, and our roots."
ClemK - Painter, author, Theater- and Filmdirector. ClemK was drawn to Rome at a young age as a volunteer for the Italowestern. Here he proved himself to be a valued painter during breaks in filming. Even today, this time shimmers in his portraits as if through an atavistic veil.
“If an artistic work allows conclusions to be drawn about my life, it has the function it should have. This approach could already be seen in my work at the end of the sixties. Today it is rounded off by individual life experience.
I call my unconscious view of reality in painting an integral view. I allow what is stronger than intentions and tasks. This is how the secret of the effect of my work is created.
When I carelessly let go, trusting in a successful end result, not controlling myself in order to achieve a certain purpose, I achieve the best results.
Art as the art of living. Being free from restrictions and guidelines. Just do it. The chaos of life shimmers out, which I intuitively organize with consciously placed lines. I create a protective island or a safe haven in the midst of chaos, from which I explore and arrange the picture in peace.”
He starts with self-photographed portraits, paints them en miniature, photographs them again, overpaints, enlarges on canvas. Takes calculated by the enlargements resulting coarser pigmentation and distortions, colored, enlarged and painted over again until he is satisfied.
ClemK has to smile when he calls himself an "atavist". But especially in times of artificial intelligence and increasing overtechnologization of our exuberant world, he sees himself as a colorful countermovement. No turning away from progress, but from wild growth instead of consolidation. This provokes his atavistic reflexes. In abstract forms of expression he finds a direct connection to our primal instincts and emotions.
Overall, Atavist ClemK calls for a lasting renewal of our grounding in the world. Sensually, he explores our relationship to our ancestors and to nature in his archaic portraits. He reads faces, enlarges in detail to the abstract, and as a former filmmaker makes the fleetingly overlooked fascinatingly visible to us in painted close-ups.
ClemK is member of the "Berufsvereinigung bildender Künstler Österreichs".
ClemK si considera un atavico. Un colorato contro-movimento alla crescente ipertecnologia e complessità del nostro mondo effervescente. Nessuna deviazione dal progresso, ma dalla crescita a tutti i costi invece che dal consolidamento. Un ritorno a forme di espressione astratte, una connessione immediata con i nostri istinti ed emozioni primordiali.
Nel complesso, l'atavista ClemK intende l'arte come una ricerca di autenticità. Ci incoraggia a rinnovare in modo sostenibile il nostro radicamento nel mondo esplorando il nostro rapporto con la natura e i nostri antenati in modo arcaico e sensuale.
Per dirla semplicemente: gli piace molto dipingere!
ClemK loves people, especially their faces. He studies them extensively to read the character traits. To express this painterly, may not be expected from him classically "beautiful" portraits. With a self-developed blow up technique, a diverse mix of materials and in up to 15 steps, his works are created.