BERLIN.- Contemporary Fine Arts announces the gallery’s first exhibition with works by Spencer Sweeney (born in 1973 in Philadelphia, USA), entitled ‘Viva Las Vegas’.

Sweeney’s artistic practice stays within the genres and styles of the fine arts, music, and performance. His creative work has always been informed by musical, visual, and social impressions and encounters. Even though the title ‘Viva Las Vegas’ may suggest otherwise, this exhibition is actually the result of months of introspection and a conscious focus on working exclusively as a painter in the studio. The artist worked on several canvases simultaneously, and with Sweeney’s well-known talent as a communicator, it is easy to imagine how in the process, the paintings interrogated and fertilized each other, how they fought and lovingly made up, and then turned away from each other again.

The paintings and drawings seem to show emotionally charged creatures and energetic spaces and landscapes. In explosive, distorted pictures with pulsating colours, the works go back and forth between artistic methods and media.

Spencer Sweeney (born in 1973, Philadelphia, USA) lives and works in New York. His works have been shown in exhibitions like ‘Do Your Thing’, White Columns, New York (2012); ‘Nudes’, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee (2011); ‘That was then … This is Now’, PS1, New York (2008); ‘Day for Night’, and at the Whitney Biennale, New York (2006). In addition, Spencer Sweeney made a name for himself as the founder of New York’s legendary Santos Party House. Sweeney regarded running this club – bringing together a wide range of people of all ages and backgrounds and playing a wide variety of musical styles with the goal of creating an experience that unites everybody – as part of his artistic work.