Alessandra Acierno

Otto and Klaus

Jackson's Art Prize 2024
Oil
Canvas
50 x 40 cm

£1,450

“I am a female artist specializing in 2D media. Conceptually, the ‘encounter’ is central within my work – an encounter with a stranger, a brutal or absurd encounter. The essence is the meeting point, the tension of two units crossing paths, and the power dynamic implicit in this brief contact. For me, the painting itself is a moment of encounter. Within its boundaries, once-familiar objects and places shift, assuming alien qualities. Kafka’s Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams and found himself in his home, but entirely transformed. It is this metamorphosis, this state of slippage, that occupies my work.

Otto and Klaus is a piece about pathetic adoration. Otto adores Klaus. Klaus is aloof from Otto. Otto holds Klaus as if holding him could bring him closer. Klaus remains distant. A painting is a one-act play, and in this play, the two protagonists are caught in a Beckett-like tableau of apathy, pitiful yearning, and unfulfilled affection.”