Arno Beck
Arno Beck (*1985) studied Fine Art/Painting
(in the master class of Eberhard Havekost) at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, currently living and working in Bonn as he holds the Studio Grant at Bonner Kunstverein. His works have been exhibited widely at, amongst others, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Museum Sinclair-Haus Bad Homburg, Galerie König Berlin,
Nino Mier Gallery, L.A., Cidade das Artes Rio de Janeiro, and solo shows at DAM Projects Berlin, Joshua Liner Gallery New York, Galerie Falko Alexander Cologne and Schierke Seinecke Galerie Frankfurt. Arno Beck’s conceptual paintings and drawings evolve around digital aesthetics and focus on analog production of digital images. Engaging with the language of digital culture the motifs are based on low resolution computer graphics, games and interfaces. It is an interplay between the contemporary digital screen world and traditional techniques. Arno Beck lives and works in Witterschlick/Bonn, Germany.
Link: www.arnobeck.de
Arno Beck: Untitled, typewriter-drawing on japanese paper, 45x45 cm
Arno Beck’ creates his pictures with a typewriter. In his his unique images he combines found photos (of landscapes, for example) with coarse pixelated graphic motifs from older computer games to create his own compositions. For this purpose, he has developed a system in which different
grayscale-values are generated by superimposing different letters; the final image is then „typed“ by hand in a time-consuming process.
Although the resulting works are technical images, neither photography nor any other current digital tools and procedures are used directly; rather, they are thematised in a kind of low-tech attitude and retro-tech quotes. The digital calculation work of the computer is mirrored by Beck‘s physical work, the human scale, the stoic copying and „typing“ of every single „pixel“ of the photographically created image-template is set against the digital-machine time of the camera and the computer.
Text: Michael Reisch