Michael Bauer (B. 1973)

With its biomorphic forms and distorted conglomeration of doodled elements, Pol 1 (Smart Esrus), 2005, bears witness to Michael Bauer’s play with the iconography of power. A male profile, framed by a decorative vignette, appears as a grotesque heraldic emblem, reminiscent of Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s bizarre anthropomorphic portraits, his grey and muddy forms entangling like entrails. Lumpy scar tissue and decaying matter converge to form a forlorn memento mori. Bauer balances the obscene with the delicate, creating a fragile seduction within his barbarous image. Subtitled Smart Estrus, Bauer’s painting suggests lurid tales of patriarchal power and noble lineage.